/O 




Class 
Book_ 



V ' 



With Respects of 
LEVI L. BARBOUR. 



SEMI-CENTENN I AL 



ADMISSION 



STATE OF MICHIGAN 



I^'TO ^I^HE UNION. 



DELIVERED AT ITS CELEBRATION, JUNE 15, 1886. 



PKTROIT FRF.K PRKSS PRINTINO COMPAyY. 
18S6. 



CONTENTS 



PAOK 

Prkfatoky Rkmarks — by Commission 1 

Joint Resolution H 

Okficial Programme • • • ■ 5 

Addresses at the Capitol Steps — 

Prayer — Rev. Geo. Taylor 34 

Address of Welcome — Russell A. Alger, Governor of Michigan. . 85 
The Financial Elistory of Michigan — Hon. Ebenezer O. Gros- 

venor 38 

Mines and Mineral Interests of Michigan — Prof. Chas. I). Law- 

ton o3 

Addresses in the Hall ok Repkkskntatives — *^ 

The Semi Centennial of Michigan — Hon. Thomas M. Cooley. ... 78 

.ludicial History of Michigan — Hun. James V. Campbell 102 

The University — President Angell 138 

Michigan in Congress — Hon. Roswell ,G. Horr 14(5 

Addresses in tiih: Senate Chamber — 

Executive — Hon. Alpheus Felch 155 

The Railroads of Michigan — .Major W. C. Ransom 183 

A Brief Sketch of the ('ommon Schools of Michigan and of the 
State Normal Schools— Prof. J. M. B. Sill 19« 

Addresses .\t Agricultural Hall — 

Fish and Fish Culture in Michigan — John H. Bis.sell 351 

Corrections and Charities — Hon. Levi L. Barbour 270 

The Progress of the Mechanic Arts in the Last Fifty Years — 
James W. Bartlett 309 

Addresses .vt the Grand Stand — 

Agriculture— W L Webber 393 

Michigan Horticulture — Hon. Chas. W. Garfield 40(5 

Brief Military History of Michigan as a Territory and a State — 
Gen. John Robertson 433 

The Early Legislation ok Michigan — Hon. Alpheus Felch 510 



PREFATORY REMARKS 

]i Y C; O M MISSION. 



Wisely considering Michigan's development and advancement 
during this half century worthy of commemoration, her Legisla- 
ture adopted the Ibllowing joint resolution providing for the 
celebration of the semi-centennial of her admission into the Union. 

In accordance with the sj)irit and provisions of such joint reso- 
lution, Henry Chamberlain, Henry Fralick, Theodore H. Hinch- 
man, James Shearer and 8. T. Read wefe appointed and confirmed 
Commissioners, and, with the Governor, were empowered to deter- 
mine upon a day and to make all proper and suitable provision 
for celebrating such semi-centennial. 

Messrs. Thomas M. Coolcy, .lames V. Campbell, Alpheus 
Felch, Ebenezer O. Grosvenor, Charles I). Lawton, William L. 
Webber. Charles W. Garfield, dames W. Bartlett, James B. 
Angell, Edwin WiUits, J. M. K Sill, Levi L. Barbour, John H. 
Bissell, W. C. Ransom, K. H. Horr, .lohii Robertson, John J. 
Adam, the gentlemen selected to address the people on that occa- 
sion, most cheerfully and fitly responded to the invitations 
extended to them. Upon the subjects severally assigned them, 
they delivered most interesting and instructive addresses, graphi- 
cally portraying the progress of our State. The facts presented 
are more cogent tiuui tlicory, however specious. 

The Commission selected the subjects for addresses with refer- 



2 I'REFATORY REMARKS. 

ence to presenting, in their treatment, the State's civil, judicial, 
financial and military history ; her educational, reformatory and 
charitable institutions; her railroads, varied industries and 
resources. 

To the many thousands attendant, these cultured, mature, 
practical and distinguished gentlemen presented these matters so 
important and vital to the State ; and for the benefit of the people 
at large, the Commission deem those addresses eminently worthy 
of publication. 

At the request of the Commission, Hon. Alpheus Felch has 
placed at its disposal the address by him delivered before the 
Legislative Association ; and the same is herewith presented, as 
supplying an important feature in the programme of the celebra- 
tion. 

Whatever is, should show its right to be. The justification for 
this volume will be found in its subjects, contents, and the need 
of disseminating the information it contains. 

Michigan may feel a just pride in her progress, attainments 
and prospects. 

The ofiicial programme, with the words and music (both origi- 
nal and selected), is herewith presented. 

We submit this volume with the assurance that the reader will 
feel a quickened and growing interest in the State of his nativity 
or adoption. 



JOINT RESOLUTION 



State of Michigan. — File No. 13. — Seuate. — No. 19. 

Introduced by Senator Sherwood, February 23, 1885. Repor- 
ted without amendments by Committee on Appropriations and 
Finance, and ordered printed, Marcli 13, 1885. 

Joint Resolxtiox relating to the semi-centennial cei('l)ratioii of 
the admission of the State of Michigan into the Union. 

Whereas, We are near the period when this State will pass the 
fiftieth anniversary of its admission into the union of States, and 
in view of the great changes wrought, the wonderful develop- 
ments and rapid advancement made, during this half century, and 
while there still remain among us many of those who have contrib- 
uted so much towards these magnificent results, and by whose 
wisdom the destiny of this commonwealth has been directed, and 
for whom we have such great admiration and respect, therefore. 

Resolved by the Senate and Home of Representatives of the State 
of Michigan, That His Excellency the Governor be and hereby is 
authorized and requested to appoint five commissioners, the same 
to be confirmed by the Senate, and that said commissioners be 
empowered to determine upon a day and to make all proper and 
suitable provisions for celebrating the semi-centennial of the ad- 
mission of the State of Michigan into the Union ; and that a sum 
not exceeding five thousand dollars be and hereby is appropriated 
from the general fund, so much of which as may be necessary to 
be used by said commissioners for such celebration. 

And further, That His Excellency the Governor is hereby 
appointed to act with said commissioners, and shall be the president 
of such Commission, and shall keep an accurate account of all 
expenses and disbursements of the same, and shall present vouch- 
ers for the same duly certified by him to the Auditor General, 
who shall thereupon draw his warrant or warrants on the State 
Treasurer for such sums as may be necessary within said appro- 
priation. Said connnissiouers will serve without compensation, 
but their actual expenses shall be allowed and paid out of said 
appropriation. 

Ordered to take immediate effect. 

Approved May 11th, 1885. 



OFFICIAL PROGRAMME 



Words and Mrsic of thr Seme-Ckntennial Anniversary 
OF THE State of Michigan, 

HELD AT LANSING, J C7 N E 15, 1886. 

PuTKuant to an Act of the last Legislature, and under the management of a 
Board of Commissioners, appointed bg the Governor, 



BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS. 

GovEKNOK R. A. Alger, Chairman of the Board of Commissiouers, 
President of the Day. 

Hon. HENiiY Ciiambeklain Three Oaks. 

IIox. IlENitY FuAi.iCK ' Grand Rapid.s 

Hon. Theo. H. Hinchman Detroit. 

Hon. James Sfieareu Bay City 

Hon. S. T. Read Cassopolis. 

A National Salute will be fired at sunrise. 
A Serai-Centennial Salute will be fired at noon. 
Papers will be read and speeches made during tlie day by the 
following prominent citizens : 

Hon. Ali'iieus Fei.ch. Hon. Chas. W. Garfield. 

Hon. John J. Adam. Pres. Edwin Willits. 

Pres James B. Angell. Prof. J. M. B. Sill. 

Hon. Thomas M. Coolky. L. L. Barbour, Est^. 

Hon. James V. Cami'bell, John H. Bisskll, Esq. 

Hon. E. O. Guosvenor. M.\.roR W. C. Ransom. 

Hon. Chas D. Lawton. James W. Bartlett, Esq. 

Hon. \Vm. L. Weiuser. General Jno. Robertson. 

Also voluntary addresses, if time will permit. 
Instrumental music for the day will be furnished by the follow- 
iug bands : 

Twenty-third U. S. Infantry Band of Fort Wayne Detroit. 

Knights of Pytliias Band Lansing. 

Cassopolis Military Band. Cassopolis. 



6 I'KOOEEDINGS OF THE SEMICENTENNIAL. 

And vocal music by the "Ariou Quartette of Detroit, Mesdames 
Clemelli of New York, and Tilden of Mt. Clemens, and the fol- 
lowing from Lansing: A chorus of 80 mixed voices, the Lansing 
" Liederkranz " of 20 male voices, and a chorus of 130 children 
from the public schools. The whole under the management of 
Prof H. B. Roney, East Saginaw. 

The exercises of the day will commence at 10 a. m. with an 
" Address of Welcome," from the steps of the Capitol, by Gover- 
nor R. A. Alger. 

Immediately after the Governor's address, and continuing 
throughout the forenoon, papers will be read and speeches deliv- 
ered in Representative Hall, in the Senate Chamber, and from the 
steps of the Capitol, by some of the gentlemen named above, 
interspersed with music. 

At 12:30 p. M. a barbecue and grand basket picnic will be held 
on the fair grounds. Meat, potatoes, bread, butter, coffee, sugar 
and milk, will be furnished to all applicants without charge. 
These articles the guests will call for at the carving table. Abun- 
dant table room will also be supplied, but no dishes, plates, knives, 
forks or cups. 

At 2 o'clock, p. M., speeches will be made on the fair grounds, 
from the Judge's stand and balcony of Agricultural Hall, by some 
of the gentlemen named above, with instrumental and vocal music 
at intervals. 

At 7:30 o'clock, evening, speaking will lie resumed at the Cap- 
itol building, with music as before. 

Books containing the music and words complete, also the pro- 
grames for the day in detail, can be obtained at the Capitol and 
on the fair grounds at a trifling cost. It is hoped that visitors will 
provide themselves with these books and that all will join in sing- 
ing the words, which will be adapted to patriotic and popular airs. 

.JAMES E. PITTMAN. 
B. VERNOR, 
F. A. BAKER, 

Committee of Arrangementn by appaintment of 
the Board of Commissioners. 



OFFICIAL PKOGKAMMK. 



COMPLETE LITERARY AND MUSICAL PROGRAMMES FOR 
THE LAY. 

Madame Debbie Clemei.li, of New York (formerly of Detroit), prima 
donna soprano. 
Mrs. Maky E. Tii.den, of Mt. Clemens, contralto. 
"Arion (Quartette," of Detroit— C. V. Slocum, first tenor; L. P. De- 
Sale, second tenor; J. Q. Ada.ms. first bass; R. Gates Rick, second bass. 
Miss Minnie Orton, of Bay City, piano accompanist for the Repre- 
sentative Hall programmes. 

Miss Helen R. Connkh, of Detroit, piano accompanist for the Senate 
Chamber programmes. 

Also the Lansing "Liederkranz," 20 males voices, under Prof. Ph. 
Keinatii, director. 
Mixed chorus of 80 voices from Lansing. 

Chorus of 130 children from the Lansing pul)lic schools, under the 
direction of Mrs. Floua Rakick, special teacher of music. 

The 23d U. S. Infantry Band, stationed at Fort Wayne, Detroit, 19 
pieces, S. Beuningkh, band-master. 
The Cassopolis Military Band, 20 pieces, C. W. Martin, leader. 
The Kniglits of Pythias Band of Lansing, 15 pieces, Joseph Spross. 
leader. 
Mr. L. A. Baker. Assistant Manager at Lansing. 
Prof. H. B. Roney, East Saginaw, Director of Music for the Serai- 
Centennial. 

CAPITOL STEPS PliOGRAMME. 
Gov. R. A. AixiEK, Presiding. 

10;00 a. m.— Music, National Melodies Alford. 

Cassopolis Military Band. 

Music, " Let the Hills and Valleys Resound " Richards. 

Chorus of 130 School Children. 

Prayer Rev. Geo. Taylor. 

Address of Welcome by His Excellency, Russell A. Alger, Governor of 

Michigan. 
Music, " Columbia the Gem of the Ocean." 

Chorus of Children. 

Address, "Financial " Hon. E. O. Grosvenor, 

11:15— Music, Overture. " Rival" Pettee. 

Cassopolis Military Band. 

Address, " Mineral " Prof. Chas. D. Lawton. 

Voluntary Addresses. 

Music, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," with special "Michigan" verse, 

writteu by Prof. Roney. 

Full chorus, united audiences and three bands. 

REPRESENTATIVE HALL PROGRAMME. 
Hon. Henky Chamberlain, Presiding. 
10:15 A. .M. — Grand selection from " Trovatore," arranged by Band- 
master S. Bcrninger. 
23d L^ S. Infantry Baud. 
Music, "Michigan's Semi-Centennial Hymn ' written by D. Bethune 
Duflield, Escj., of Detroit, to " Kellars American Hymn." 
Chorvis. 



O PROCEEDINGS OK THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

Address, " Historical " Judge Thos. M. Cooley. 

11:15 — Music, Ode, " Land of the Lakes." Written by Judge J. Logan 
Ciiipman, of Detroit. Music composed for this occasion by Prof. H. 
B. Roney. Madame Clemelli, Mrs Tilden, Messrs Slocum, Rice and 
Chorus. 

Address, " Judiciary '" Judge James V. Campbell. 

Music, "Star Spangled Banner," with special "Michigan" verse, by 
Rev. J. T. Oxtoby, of East Saginaw. Madame Clemelli, Chorus, Audi- 
ence and 23d U. S. Infantry Band. 

13:15 until 2 P. M. — Barbecue and Ba>^ket Picnic at the Fair Grounds. 

SENATE CHAMBER PROGRAMME. 

Hon. Henry Fkalick, Presiding. 

10:15 a. m. — Music, Pharaphrase, "How Fair Tliou Art" (Nesvadba). 

Arranged by J. B. Claus Lansing Knights of Pythias Band. 

Music, "The United Band" Otto. 

Arion Quartette. 

Music, Solo, " The Soldier's Talisman " Oberthur. 

Mr. C. V. Slocum. 

Address, "Executive" Ex-Gov. Alphcus Felch. 

11:15— Music, Solo, "Oh, Let Me Like a Soldier Fall," from " Mari- 

tana Balfe. 

Mr. L. P. DeSale. 

Address, " Legislative" Hon. John J. Adam. 

Music, Solo, " Fruehlingszeit," (Springtime) Becker. 

"Mrs. Mary E. Tilden. 
Music, " Michigan, my Michigan," Written by Maj. James W. Long, 
of Grand Rapids, to the air, " Lauriger Horatius." 
Arion Quartette 
12:15 until 2 p. m. — Barbecue and Basket Picnic at the Fair Grounds. 

AGRICULTURAL HALL PROGRAMME. 
Hon. S. T. Read, Presiding. 

2:00 p. M. — Music, Overture, " Silver Bell " Schlepegrel. 

23d U. S. Infantry Band. 

Address, "Fish and Fish Culture " ' J. H. Bissell, E'^q 

3:00 — ]Music, Grand Medley on National Airs Catliu 

23d U. S. Infantry Band. 
Address, Educational, "Agricultural College," President Edwin Willits 

3:45— Music, "The Tar's Song" Hatton 

Arion Quartette. 

Address, " Reformatories and Charities " L. L. Barbour, Esq 

4:30— Music, " Ro.ses and Lilies " (Cornet Solo) RoUinson 

Cassopolis Military Band. 

Address, " Mechanical " James W. Bartlett, Esq 

Music, Overture. " L'Espoir de L'Alsac " Herman 

Cassopolis Military Band. 

GRAND STAND PROGRAMME. 

Hon. T. H. HiNCHMAN, Presiding. 

2:00 p. .M. — Music, "American Overture ' Catlin. 

Lansing Knights of Pythias Band. 

Music, " The Hunter's Farewell" Mendelssohn. 

Arion Quartette. 

Address, " Agriculture " Hon. Wm. L. Webber, 

3:00— Music, " Michigan, My Michigan " Arion Quartette. 



OFFICIAL PliOGKAMME. V 

Aildress, " Horticulture " Hod. Chas. W. Gartield. 

i<:45 — Music, Potpourri, " Ye Oldeu Time " Lansing K. P. Band. 

Addre&s, "Agricultural Possibilities of the Upper Peninsula." 

4:30— Music, ''"The Vacant Chair " G. F. Root. 

(In IMenioriam of Michigan's Heroes) Arion Quartette. 

Address, ' Military " Gen. John Robertson. 

Music, " Recollections of the Warlire," Beyer. 

2:^d U. S. Infantry Band. 

REPRESENTATIVE HALL PROGRAMME. 

Hon. Henuy Chamberlain, Presiding. 

8:00 V. M. — Music, Overture, " Diademe " ... Herman. 

2'->d U. S. Infantry Band. 

Mus^ic. "March of the Half Century." Written by Mrs. K. R. Hill, of 

Vassar, to " March to the Men of Harlech." 

Chorus. 

Music, "Beautiful Michigan," words and music by Madame Debbie 

Clcmelli Madame Clemelli (Solo), Mrs. Roper, Messrs. C. O. Pratt 

and L. A. Baker. 

Address. " The University". ., President Jas. B. Angell. 

!):00^- .Music, Solo, "With W^rdure Clad." from the "Creation". .Haydn. 
Madame Debbie Clemelli. 

Music, Ode, " Land of the Lakes " Chipman — Rouey. 

Soloists and Chorus. 
Address, " Congressional." 
Music, " Michigan's Hymn of Peice," written by Edward Bloedon, of 

East Saginaw, to "Battle Hymn," from "Rienzi." R. Wagner. 

Lansing Liederkranz, Prof. Philip Keinath. Director. 
Music, " Hymn of the Fifty Years," written by Mrs. C. C. Moots, of 

West Ba\' City, to " Glory, Hallelujah! " Mrs. Tilden, Chorus, 

Audience and 2:Jd U. S. Infantry Band. 
Music, Do.\ology, "Praise (tod from Whom all Blessings Flow." 
Chorus, Audience and Band. 

SENATE CHAMBER PROGRAMME. 

Hon. Henuy Fualu k. Presiding. 

8:00 1". .\i. — Music, " Puritan's Daughter" (Balfe) Geo. Wiegand. 

Lansing Knights of Pythias Band. 

Music. Quintette, " Queen of the Valley " Dr. Caldicott. 

I^Irs. Tilden and Arion Quartette. 

Music , Solo, ' ' The Warrior Bold " Adams. 

Mr. K. Gates Rice. 

Address, " Railroads." Maj. W. C. Ransom. 

9:00 — Music, Solo, "The Lay of an Imprisoned Huntsman," from " Lady 

of the Lake " Schubeit. 

Mr. J. il. Adams. 
Address, Educational, " Normal and Common Schools," 

Prof. J. ^l. B. Sill. 

Music, " Away Down Upon the Suwanee liiver' Arion Quartette 

Music, Do.xology, " Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow," 
Arion (Juartettc and .\udience. 



10 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL, 



LANSING CHORUS FOR THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

FROF. H. B. RONEY, Conductor. 



Mr. Fred. Adler. 
Mr. and Mrs. C. Allsdorf. 
Mrs. J. Leslie Ash. 
Miss Ella C. Baker. 
Miss Blaude E. Baker. 
Miss MjTtie Baker. 
Mr. L. Adelbert Baker. 
Mr. L. A Baker. 
Mr. and Mrs.W.G. Bement, 
Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Burnett. 
Mr. A. N. Brown. 
Miss Lizzie Brown. 
Miss Hettie Brown. 
Miss Grace Beamer. 
Miss Maggie Cahill. 
Miss Clara Cahill. 
Miss Minnie Carnahan. 
Miss Grace Carpenter. 
Mr. & Mrs. Frank Chaffee. 
Mr. F. E. Church. 
Mr. Geo. C. Cooper. 
Miss Fannie Covvles. 
Miss Grace Cowles. 
Mrs. Geo. Coleman. 
Mr. Coonsman. 



Mr. J. A. Grossman. 
Mr. J. Dietz. 
Mrs. R. B. DeViney. 
Mr. Ant. Dunnebache. 
Miss Etta Foster. 
Miss Nellie Foster. 
Mr. George Frey. 
Mr. David Gauss. 
Mr. Christian Guenther. 
Mr. H. R. Howard. 
Mr. L. P.. Hontoon. 
Miss Hattie Hasty. 
Mr. Aug. Henrich. 
Miss E. D. Howe. 
Mr. H. A. Irish. 
Miss Gertie Jamison. 
Miss Lena Jones. 
Miss May Kellogg. 
Mr. R. B. Kellogg. 
Mr. Horace C. Lapham. 
Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Lee. 
Mr. Martin Lichte. 
Mr. Joseph Lugar. 
3Ir. Henry Mueller; 
Dr. D. M. "Nottingham. 



Mr. Wm. Nesshoefer. 
Dr. H. Ostrander. 
Capt. C. O. Pratt. 
Mrs. D. Parker. 
Mr. E. H. Porter. 
Mrs. L. S. Roper. 
Mrs. Flora Rarick. 
Miss Nettie Robson. 
Mr. Frank Rol)son. 
Mr. Dwight Robson. 
Miss Flora Rice. 
3Ir. John Strong. 
Mr. Geo. L. Strong. 
Mr. J. Frank Strong. 
Miss May L. Strong. 
Mr. J. Seibel. 
Miss Kittie Skinner. 
Miss Zayde Spencer. 
Mrs. Homer L. Thayer. 
Miss Nora Thorne. 
Mr.C has. H. Thompson. 
Miss Mina Tubbs. 
Mr. Carl Vogel. 
Mr. G. H. Ziegler. 
Mr. C. W. Ziegler. . 



LANSING CHILDREN'S CHORUS FOR THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

MRS. FLORA RARICK, Director. 



Anna Ashley. 
Grace Ayers. 
Alice Brazee. 
Eddie Bement. 
Charlie Beard. 
Lizzie Bennet. 
Mabel Beamer. 
Maggie Baker. 
Mamie Byers. 
Clara Bailey. 
Frank Baker. 
Lulu Birch. 
Howard Carnahan. 
Irving Carey. 
Henry Daniels. 
Bennie Davis. 
Grace Fowler. 
Maud Gordon. 
Allie Granger. 
Sophie Zahner. 
Daisy Davis. 
Irving Haag. 
Nellie Hasler. 
Lettie Higley. 
Willie Hornberger. 
Nettie Hulbird. 
Robbie Lamed. 
Emily Leech. 
Halle Mead. 
Gertie Millard. 
Charlotte McCalluu 
Belle Nottingham. 
Florence Presley. 
Edith Pack. 
Grace Robson. 
Leonard Roe. 
Gertie Smith. 
Frederick Swan. 
Mary Saxton. 
Herbie Sutliflf. 
Frank Wells. 
Ella Wilcox. 
Rena Wilson. 
Fannie Walz. 
Edith Cooley. 



Gertie Corbin. 
Arthur Cannell. 
Winford Cannell. 
Eddie Dean. 
Carrie Gleason. 
Mable Gale. 
Jennie Humphrey. 
John Hertel. 
Clem Jarvis. 
Lillie Klocksiem. 
Mina Leadly. 
Mary Pugh. 
Maud Roberts. 
Ralph Rauney. 
3Iarie Stephenson. 
Juna Todd. 
Frankie T.yler. 
Roswell Wright. 
Howard Baker. 
Howard Bement. 
Arthur Donovan. 
Millie Edwards. 
Nellie Gower. 
Julia Findlej". 
Louie Hill. 
Clara Hahn. 
Tom Humphrey. 
Katy Keys. 
John Kelly. 
Maggie Miller. 
Joel Rix. 
Elia Boyce. 
Norman Spencer. 
Lewis Spice. 
Lora Williams. 
Maggie McKenzie. 
Ollie Newbro. 
Byron Otis. 
Don Piatt. 
Nellie Snyder. 
Ida Spaulding. 
Ruby Spaulding. 
Fred Schuon. 
Callie Wardwell. 
Eva Ward. 



Florence Bissell. 
Etta Kepky. 
CharUe Spring. 
Sophie Hare. 
Ada Ackerman, 
Clara Bailey. 
Willie Brake. 
Elva C'hoate. 
Mina Cook. 
Flora Crowner. 
Charlie Daharsh. 
Minnie Dunker. 
Oce Ferry. 
Louise Ganssly. 
Millie Granger. 
Alvin Herrick. 
Jerome Howard. 
Louie Lesher. 
Myrtie Jlarsh. 
Grace McDonel. 
Marcus Miles. 
Maude Neff. 
Alice Olds. 
Schuyler Olds. 
Willi;' Piflla. 
Charlie l;eitz. 
Seymour Rice. 
Fanny Roark. 
Edith Sellers. 
Jay Snyder. 
Dottie Brown. 
Harry Case. 
Daisy Collett. 
Alice Dean. 
Willie Dell. 
Ida Foerster. 
Ralph Garlick. 
Laura Hahn. 
Fred Hertel. 
Claude Hickey. 
Harriett Hull. 
Claude Humphrey. 
Inez Hutton. 
Willie Hollis. 



OKIK'IAL I'KOGKAMMK. 11 



LIST OF DKl.EGATES OF TllK STATK noNFFII AND IIISTOIIICAL 

SOCIFTV. 

Appointed to represent the Societi/ at the Semi-Centennial. 

Hon. henry FRALICK, Pre-sideiU. 
Mrs. HARRIET A. TENNEY, Recordin;/ ^Secretary. 
GEORGE H. GREEXE. Gorrespondimi Secretary. 
EPHRAIM LONGYEAR, Treasurer. 

E.recuUve Committee. 

I'rof. John C. Holmes. Judge Alhekt .Mii.i.ku. 

Hon. Fkancis A. Dewey. 

Committee of Historians. 

Col. M. Shoemaker, Chairman. 
Dr. O. C. Co.MSTOCK. Hon. Talcott E. Wing. 

M. H. Goodrich, Esq. Hon. Witter J. Ba.xter. 

Hou. John J. Ada.m Tecumseh. 

Dr. I. P. Aluer Coldwater. 

Hon. E. Lakin Bhown Schoolcraft. 

Rev. R. C. Ckawford Grand Rapids. 

Hon. Tnos. M. Cooley Ann Arbor. 

Hon. Jamks V. Campbeli Detroit. 

Hon. Wm. H. Choss Ceutreville. 

Hon. John H. Forster Williamston. 

Hon. Alpiieus Felch Ann Arbor. 

Hon. Thomas D. Gii.ijert Grand Rapids. 

Hon. O. PoppLETox Birmingham. 

Hon. H. H. Riley Constantine. 

Hon. C. D. Randall Cold water. 

Hon. S. L. Smith Lansing. 

Hon. C. B. Stebiuns Lansing. 

Hoil. Francis R. Stebbins Adrian. 

Mrs. E. M. Sheldon Stewart Michigan Centre. 

Mr. A. D. P. Van Buren Galesburg. 

Hon. C. I. Walker Detroit. 

Hon. Wm. L. Webber Saginaw. 

Hon. E. S. Williams Flint. 

Hon. Peter White Marquette. 



11' 

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Written by Jtdge J. Logax Chipman, of Detroit. 

Music composed for the Seiui-Centeunial, and dedicated to His Excellency, 

RUSSELL A. ALGER. 

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN 
BY 

HENRY B. RONEY. 

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Land of (loop \va - tors lit l)v tlash - in;: 
ters 



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beams Re- 



-^^^ # -- #•-#(- r 

r 1^ ^ 

Land of dooj) \va - ters 



IF— i ft* n-^ ^^-^- 






i 



fleet - ing. 






« "5 — *" 



^±b, 



na 

N 



t lire's 



fleet - ins". 



re - fleet - ing 



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na - ture's. na - ture's 



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fleet 



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most lux - 11 - riant ffrooii. 






Homo of bright as - peets of 






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J: I r: 



'?»=*^zr}^f3SLM 






14 



I 



beau - ty stern or mild. 



cre.^. rit. 



^--^ R- 



a=5 






' i . 

beau - ty stei'ii or luilil. Uf .-^un - sets, gor - geons in their 

— p ^0-^ # 



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P^ — »— ^ 



u I U I 

7 ^ V 



;EESEEt=E^ 



t=F 



r?7. . . . '^^^ /T\ ^^t sylvan shades 



and tir- chid mountains 



dream- y tints, 



■m — d — ' — ^ 






^-^-— ^--tv ^-- 



"S — s — — ■""* ^ — ^TiT""^ — m~i — ^~ 









Of syl-van shades and fir - clad 



V" ?" 



wild Of bow'rs "mid which the vo - cal l)n)oklct glints. 



3-J^-^^ 



4 









iiiouiiliiiiis wild; 



Pipi 



Of bow'rs "mid which the vo - cal brooklet glints. 



s^-rEEjifi 



hr— t^ 



Moderato. 



_^_^^_^ 



t=t:=t:^t:=n:^ 



■*?-» — »-^^ — # — •—-»—»—-» 



—I— — S — 1-j rj — M Ki — 



■^r- 



^—\^ — ^— (^ — ^— t^ — ^-J 



-(^- 



I 



brooklet aflints. 



m 



Bass Solo. 



#-^ 



f b— Ip-f^- 



y — ^- -— 



SE^ 



y^^^ 



Land of the pine, of le - gend antl of song, Whose 



A 












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:i3sv 



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15 






pp rit. - - - - 
> rrs 

H ^ — i PS— « — -H ^ 



whispering leaves and waves ix'i'ount ilu' tale Of peo - pies dead. 



Of 



f 



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— • 



i'i^ /■//. 



3=5=-a=i 



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fnnpn. 



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f^- 



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: ^ — ^ — ^- b: 



peo - plos (load, of peoples fresh and strons:; Land of the hoetlins: crag, th( 



/TN 



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« — - — 90—0—- 



s 



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ii'iiijtii. 






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r7/?w. 



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« tempo. 



if ^=^?=|»_^-r#^^.^ ,^.lg=gjVj^±^E^ 



west winds wail Of kiiighily war, of 



:ii^zit:g^z=i(V:^=: 



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s 






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w 



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mf ores. 



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^=P- 



-,^— ^ 



rit. 



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:^=L=EEE 



-^-^ — ^ — f 
— •--# — J- 



tiizd^jid: 



Land "whicli 'er.st - Avliilc slumbered 



on lirr wa - t'l-v bed, 




'^ 



---^=i- 






lii^P 






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'Til Freedom claimed her, waked her from her trance; 



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:tl2^--==::|rt:_-tt:-tt 



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17 



CHORUS. 

Slow and majestic. 

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rit. 






m'-m^t^' 



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,x4 eS 



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t^ ^ y ^' I i^i^ 



Grand in all asjx'cts ix'-ncficcnr to tiuni. Land of ihc lakes, my own fail" Micdi-ifran. 



-•-^' -*- • -#- 



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^_^ i^^*-*.* -f:*^'-^ ^^ - T f- •.* #_^-,# ^^^^ 



Soprano Solo. 

A ndante Graziom. 



V 



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cres. - - 

-X i -N 



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^•=it' 



^; 



What land more fair tlian 



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cres. 







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this land hathed in liiiht? 









9-s^ 



££ 



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Mir - ror-inof the sun with 






18 




flp=?=zzipzz'±^^ 



Mizzzit^zzit: 



calm, un-daunt - ed eye. 



-j=i^i=p: 



:[==^ 



d: 



# 




Di'ink - iiig the glo - ry 

H 






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q: 



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^5. 



♦• l}'^- 



:fc^i2 






-» 



acce?. - . > 



of the star - rv night, 



In 



thousand hike - lets. 




-9-b-ur^ — I — I — \--z — I — M-^^ 



'pp 



m^E^ 



3^5 



Bi 



accel. 






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bV. 



r?7. 









AUegretto. 



^•12£*?K^ 



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riv - al-ing the sky. 



Drink - ing the glo 



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ry 



(i 



m 



H--.tEt 



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::V'*:»*» ^,,j,-,,-C -J: 



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rit. 



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of the star - rv niiiflit, 



In thouduiid hike - lets. 









i:^l2 






:1= 



=^ 






:# • 



•' • -'-L 



f^^-U 



ff^^ 



mfA vrlanfp c^pressivo. 
Tenor Solo. 



^J^ 



.V /T\ ■*-' ^ - j r\ Tenor Solo^ 



'ling the sky. 



0, hiiid of hoi)e, O hind of 



/rs^o^ 



/rs 



bifzi 8 n j:^ 8=S« 




»■('(! 



.//■ - .//■ "'. 



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)^'^,^==i^ 



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^ 



— (■ — I- 



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::zi?^r^:*: 



*?j^^i=^^^s^=s 



f=F==f 



Frf^8«=^^^^p: 



^ "-^ — ^ g— r — i ^ =v 









lakes and streams, With hu - mid lips and tresses floating wild. 






A—A 



• - #- 



^^F=d==i^==^ 



^i^ 



#z1±zq: 












r^- 






20 






fe=P^^ 



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Seem - ins: as some half shv vouiii^ ma - tron seems, 



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f 



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. Who 




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:^z=t 



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smiles and blushes o'er her first born child, 



-^ 



u=t: 



Eich in all richness. 






i 

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-l9r ■#• 



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gg 



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«.u n cres. - ■ 



:P=F: 



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rich - er e'en than f^old, Dowered in lake and woodland 



W^ 



-irr.¥U--zl \' 









i 



si 






1* 



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a^lat 



g: 



ft^ 



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21 



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e 



and 



,9S 



in isle. 






«r 1. — 1. — ^ 



A — i, 

5^ 



land of hope, land of 



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lakes and streams, With lips and tresses floating wild. 






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Seeniing as some lialf shy young 



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f^i^: 



•; 

^•^ Chorus 






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]iumminy.\ 
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1 — r- 



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22 



IS 



iL=t; 



V — *^ 



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-• h 



ma - tron seems, Who smiles and blushes. 



smiles aud 



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A^ 



^^feEE 



s 



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ifci^t 



bhish - es o'er her first born child. 



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gr 



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E^3JEi 



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Rich in all I'ich - nedS, rich - ur e"ou than gold. 



P 



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:1=:a=1: 



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23 



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Dowered in lake and wuutl - hiiul ami in isle, 




.^i^-^fc^: 



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tt 



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espressivo 

N 



fe^^r-f=^-^- 



V- 



jirzbt 






Lov - ing, lov - in^ e'en when tliv mood is stern and 






ms^ 



r^w- 



f" 






-i^^^-- 



— jr 









;5 



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cold, 



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is stern 



,/^ 



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^- 



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/TV 
-f2 



t 



and cold. 



m 

9 m 



/TN 



J- 



^= 



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v»V 



24 






q: 



r 



tE* 



•/ 









---=i 






*T -^ 



1i:=N: 



i^: 



Jf-s C 



t^ 



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Anclantino. 

Alto Solo, n 



gl 



_, ^ 



l*^« 



^#=h==P 



^ 



'^a ^ 



-N-i 



t: 



True to thy faith, too pure to e'er be - guile, Thou 




o'it. 









j»^ w- 



art 



not like the gaud - y trop - ic clinie. 



S=^E3Ei=^ 



3: 



ir-i-*- 



#~| •- 



Sifefe^tb^^ 



^=t& 



l^ssi 



151? 






-H- 






-t-A=^ # 



•— 



4- 



«— 



r/A 



N T-^ 



::$=: 



a tempo. 



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:^i2: 



3 



&-£ 



:t!p: 



25 



F=? 



/•i7. 



^2? 



Ji=ztz=ti==d=_-zt- 



S^S^^^H 



iiti* 



i 



W'hjcli woos the .soul uitli dreiiniy, sen - sual airs; 



— i 



^- 



--A- 



-# — •- 



rt tempo 







4 






/77 






IT 












/. 






T» 



0^ 






Thy free-will off - 'ring, nub - lesL oi" all time, 

.-I f^J ! N 



arcel. e cres. 



^'^m^ 



--A-- 



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. JvJ.^ 










3; 



r?7. „- moUo. 

^ ^ ^ ^ ff 



rr\: 



^i^: 



J — — ^:-4-H— ^-^ 

*i=^=qz==Mz:b^=i^_:J 






H--#-nq 



-/r\- — n 



Strong minds, l)ra\(' hearts, with glu - ry crowns thy years. 




;^=*z^^ 



•-i- 



f_0 _. » # # 






1^ 



■^ 



-•f L 






:i 



-al *r 



CHORUS. 

Maestuso. 



-M- 



:?^-Eri:EE*±E$Ei. 



26 



72- 



V ^-y. 



-9-i- 



-#-i- 



W=^7EE^ 



From thy strong womb some po - et yet will spring, And 



^^ 



^ V. ♦^v- V J. .^ ^ 

w r ^ — ^H- ^ — — ; ^ — \^ , — ^ — * 



/- 



:^^^: 
^=?- 



-\- 




in sweet num - bers vo - cal - ize thy soul;, 







1- 



'4± 



-•-.- 



±: 






:b — *: 



^# 1 - 






A.nd o'er the world thy gi'a - cious pres - ence fling, As 



9-^ ^ — y—^ - 






.^Ji 



s 



o er 



9^-^E^ 



thy 



S^-IE^ 



rit. 



::^ 



P P<^ 



/rs 



yrsPPP 



-4=^, 



i^^i 



land - scapes thy calm 



wa - ters roll. 



-• # # 1 — # ^- # (S) 1 



2T 



mf Allegretto. 
Soprano Obligate. Solo. 



JrS^ 



CHORUS. 



- f7-^- 



P'fe^=^=t- 



-V- 



-i^ — r- 



:5= 



fai - ry - land. 



of rose and wood - land 









j^; 



^ 4 



-^ 



land of rose and wood - land 



VP-0-' ^ V 

-^^> 



-/— y- 



^ — t^- 



9 # 



— »- 



r-&±i^. 



s^ 



:S— -^ 



A - bode of grace 



fill forms, of swan and 






J^S^4^4^ 



-^-=^ — S 



^-^ 



-N-. 



* 



tj^^^=Ji 



N— 



8— • "--^ «^-« 



flow'r, of wood-land tlow'r, 



^— ^ 






A-bode of <rraee-ful forms of 



-V— )/- 



i^ 



^^ P 



l^i ' 






-p: 



-^M^' 



lEi 



:5=f±=Czq?± 



dove ; 



Land of wild vines, 



-V— j^ V — 5 — '~V^ 

in manva mvs-tic 









— ^ m » m UTiZ 



-^— N Nn 



-s — ^■ 



N- 



• 90 



^^j^—trrm^ 



-w~4 



swan, of swan and dove; 



Land of wild vines, in manva 






' — — T^ — /•-^-•— • 



t: 



V— V — k- 



F=g-# 



t^ .^ 



28 



rit. 



^ 



i=^ 









bow'r. 



Dream of an an - gel 



waft - ed from a - 



&==^d: 



h^:=^^^zZ£iA 



9^-0 



.H^^H^-.^^-^-H^— J^-, 



i=iEiEiE!^=s^=^? 



:f 



mys - tic, mvs - tic bow'r, 



Dream of an an - gel Avaft - ed 
cres. 



-Kes — y—U g ^ - — 



^ 



-0 — 1»"»- -0^ 0- 0- 



Vzz^— t^— t^-zzg^z-V- 



cre.9. 



4,—- ftS- 



:v=t= 



W/U ^• 



^ 



rit. 



-^ 



bove. 



waft - ed from, 



Ch=A 






l=EJ,i^ 



m~9 - 



i 



from 



m^ 



b: 






bove, 



F 



waft - ed from 



?E-:zE|: 




29 






3EE 



:tzi 



-6^ 



EE; 



E> y 



m 



:t= 



t^-J 



bovi 



cres. 



Time wuoi'd tliee forwui-d 
(/i/ii. - . _ 



"3 



:i=q 



— J — S — #-^tjf: — s — • 






I^eS 



1. My country 'tis of thee. Sweet land of lib - er - ty, 





- to the _ gaze , 
J. di7n. - - - 



-#- 
Of 



^t=F^ 



of man, 

cres. 



In pride of thee, 



dim. 



S=j= 



i^^JE 



-3^ 






F=E^tf= 



thee I sing; 



Land where mv Fa 



_j^__^ 



^ 



r 



2: zz 



^=s 



thers died. 






rre-<i. 



t^'- 



(It lit. 



rU 



^ 






r4=i=::=|=4 



cres. 



-A- 



:t 



r 



Laud of the pil - grini's pride; From 



-#-=- 






-t^ 



My 






ov 



'ry 



-^._.^_ 



-(2L 



own 



30 



rit. 



<T\ 






/TN 



r:N 



i 



fair Mich 

rif moltn. - - 



:i 



f 



t 



gan. 



.^— 



i 



m. 



moun 



tain side, 



-» F- 



Let 



free 






-t^: 



£ 



-^i/- 



dom 



^ 



rmg. 



I 



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VO/ 



PRAISE GOD, FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW. 

Franc. 




Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him, all creatures 

1 1 _ .,2. .^ 



i^fet: 



-g- 



-^- 



-.(S" 



i^g^^s 



-i 



1 



-n-S- 



^q=^=^=t 



^— n 



^=^- 



(^- 



=F 






/CN 



^ 



;t=z:t 



3 



/TV 



1 



:^: 



3: 



-<s- 



-s- 



^ 



(S* 



-^- 



-<^ — 



-<^- 



-^- 



bi; 



here be - low; Praise Him 



-»- 



^ -(2- 



e 



-I 



bove, ye 

-(2- -^ 



-\5>- 



heavenly 



host! 



1 



r 



-c E p: 

t — F^ 



:i--i 



-^^ 



r^ 



t=1: 



/r\ 



f 



-1^- 



^r\ 



-^^ 



i 



Praise Fa - 



3 



7# 



ther. Son, and 



Ho 

I 



It: 



-«^ 



I 



::2: 



'2^- 



ly Ghost! A - men 



/On 



i 



H. S, Bigelow. Music Typographer, Chicago. 



-&- 



OFFICIAL PROGRAMME. 31 



"MICHIGAN, MY MICHIGAN." 

Written by Major James W. Long, of Grand Rapids. 

Air—" Lauriger Horatius," ndnptod (iuringtlie war to 
•• Maryland, .My Maryland." 

Land of my love, I sing of thee, 

Micbigan, my Micliigau; 
With lake l)()uml siiorc, I'm proud of thee, 

Miciiigan, my Micliigan. 
The sweet winds whisper through thy pines, 
The jewels glitter in thy mines. 
And glory on thy chaplet shines — 

Michigan, my Michigan. 

I've traveled all thy confines o'er, 

]Michigan, my Michigan; 
From lake to lake, and shore to shore, 

Michigan, my Michigan. 
I've seen thy maimed, thy halt, thy blind, 
I've seen the ones l)ereft of mind, 
To all of them thou art .so kind — 

Michigan, my Michigan. 

Thou art so pure, but modest too, 

Michigan, my Michigan; 
Thou art so brave and still ^o true, 

Michigan, my Michigan. 
No promise unfultillcd; — on trust 
Thy noble sons have bit tiie dust, 
Remembered are they. For thou art just — 

Michigan, my Michigan. 

The axe resounds 'mid woodland trees, 

Michigan, my Michigan; 
The sails of commerce court thy breeze, 

Michigan, my Michigan. 
And templed cities rise in sight, 
And happy eyes catch heaven's light, 
Our God protects thee through the night, 

Michigan, my Michigan. 

Oh I Alma Mater, at thy shrine, 

Michigan, my Michigan ; 
I worship thee as most divine, 

Michigan, my Micliigan, 
" Tucbor" '■ ril protect,'' 'tis true — 
Oh, fair peninsula ! and you — 
tShinc out a gem in starry blue, 

Michigan, my Michigan, 

Thy diadem — thy hero sons, 

Michigan, my Michigan; 
Thy choicest love — their helpless ones. 

Michigan, my Michigan. 
And just as long as song shall ring 
From Iho-e who bring an offering. 
To thee, my love, this song shall sing — 

Michigan, my Michigan. 



32 Michigan's semi-centennial. 



MICHIGAN'S HYMN OF PEACE. 

Written by Edivard Bloeden, of East Saginaw, to the 

music of the " Battle Hymn " from " Rienzi,"" 

by R. Wagner. 

Rejoice! Rejoice! my valiant men, 

Rejoice! Rejoice! my Michigan; 

The daj'S of strife liave passed away. 

Peace reigns supreme tliis happj' day. 

Columbia's sire, thou youthful star. 

Unfurl thy banners, torn in war. 

Your swords my rest, bright stands thy name. 

Engrafted deep on Nation's fame. 

Rejoice ! Rejoice ! Peace reigns supreme this day; 

Rejoice! Rejoice! the war cloud passed away. 

In armor clad we held our country's standard. 

'Gainst mighty foe, our banners floating onward. 

In mem'ry dear rest unattended graves. 

In mem'ry dear enshrined are our braves. 

She brav'st of all, eternal slumber holds, 

They fell, protecting our banners' folds. 

Rejoice! Rejoice! the land is free from danger; 

Rejoice! Rejoice! peace reigns in our home. 
Forgotten all, the cause, the strife, the anger, 

The bells of peace ring up to heaven's dome. 
Let chants resound, ye echoes, tell aloud 
Thy sons, my Michigan, are of thee proud. 
Peace reigns supreme. Columbia's shield is bright. 
Gloria, Gloria, in excelsis Deo. 
Gloria, Gloria, in excelsis Deo. 



MY COUNTRY! 'TIS OF THEE. 

Tune — " America.^'' 

My country! 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty. 

Of thee I sing; 
Land wliere my fathers died ; 
Land of the pilgrim's pride; 
From every mountainside, 

Let freedom ring. 

My native country! thee. 
Land of the noble free. 

Thy name I love: 
I love thy rocks and rills. 
Thy woods and templed hills; 
My heart with rapture thrills, 

Like that above. 

Let music swell the breeze. 
And ring through all the trees, 

Sweet freedom's song; 
Let mortal tongues awake, 
Let all that breathe partake, 
Let rocks their silence break. 

The sound prolong. 



OFFICIAL PROGRAMME. 33 

[Additional Verse by H. B. Roncy.] 
O great and alorious State, 
Land of the wood and lake, 

Thy i)ra!se we sinjr; 
Our loyal hearts adore 
Thy fertile, wave-washed shore; 
God bless thee evermore, 

Our >Iiehlgan. 

BEAUTIFUL MICHIGAN. 

Words and Music by Debbie Briscoe Clemelli, New York. 

To thee I sini^, my own dear home, 

In the land of the setting sun; 
To thy hills and valleys, rivers, lakes, 

Thy beauties every one. 
Thou art dear to the hearts of thy loyal sons. 

And thy daughters fond and true. 
Who greet thee to-day with pride and joy. 

And thy glorious past review. 

Chorus. 

Then give three cheers for the boundless shores 

The broad lake-breez.es fan; 
Thou art dear to the hearts of thy loyal sons, 

Beautiful Michigan. 

Each hallowed spot of thy lake-bound shore, 

Each teeming city of thine, 
Each village. hanil(;t, hillside, dale, 

Thy forests of oak and pine. 
Thy Northern shores that are fondly kissed 

By Superior's sparkling wave, 
Where thou yieldest rich ores from thy loving 
heart. 

Are dear to thy children brave. 

Chorus: Then give three cheers, etc. 

On lakes and rivers winding through 

Thy forests, deep and dark, 
Where glideil swift in days gone by, 

The savage warriors' bartjue. 
Are smiling meadows, fertile fields, 

Tilled by thy children free. 
Who offe>', this day, with thankful hearts. 

Their loyal homage to thee. 

Chorus: Then give three cheers, etc. 

Then blessings on thee, Michigan, 

We greet thy banners gay. 
Anil wish thee many glad returns, 

or this, thy natal" day. 
We'll govern thee in coming years, 

By laws both true and just, 
Ancl " Progress" shall our watchword be, 

In God, our hope and trust. 

Chorus: Then give three cheers, etc. 



PRAYER AT THE CAPITOL STEPS. 

By rev. GEORGE TAYLOR.. 

After luusic by the Cassopolis baud, the chorus of ITjO school 
childreu rendered the beautiful choral, " Let the Hills and Val- 
leys Resound." Then the Rev. George Taylor ■ rendered the 
following fervent prayer : 

Almighty, holy and eternal God, with whom a thousand years 
are as but one day, we, Thy dependent creatures, devoutly thank 
Thee for our existence and temporary residence upon this, Thy 
earthly footstool. We thank Thee for casting our lot in this 
pleasant, favored, and prosperous land, and gratefully confess that 
the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places; we have a goodly 
heritage. 

We bring our grateful offerings to Thee that we are thus per- 
mitted to convene on an occasion so auspicious; and would 
acknowledge Thy marvelous goodne.ss in leading our enterprising 
people from their earlier eastern settlements, by the star of empire 
westward bound, until it has shed its effulgence so profusely upon 
these our peninsulas; and that during the space of our short lives 
we have been permitted to witness the fulfillmentof the prophecies 
of Thy holy word, for to us "The wilderness has become a fruitful 
field, and to-day the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose.'- 

We make our prayer to Thee, that as Thou hast in the past 
blessed, guided and protected their predecessors, that Thou wilt 
vouchsafe Thy continued favors to Thy servants, the President of 
these United States, and all in authority throughout the National 
and State Governments; and especially do we supplicate Thy 
blessing upon our beloved State ; ui)on the executive now present, 
the officers of State, and all in authority and under authority 
throughout the commonwealth. And when the story of the march 
of enterprise for the last half century shall have been told, and 
aged and youth shall exchange their congratulations, the devout 
response of every heart shall be "Not unto us, not unto us, but 
unto Thy name be the praise." With Thy innumerable favors 
given, we thank Thee above all for our inestimable civil, intellec- 
tual, social, humanitarian and religious institutions; and earnestly 
pray that with our future progress and increase of wealth and 
power, that intelligence and virtue may keep equal pace, and that 
under the benign influence of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, 
our great men may ever be good men, and all the jjcople become 
great because they are good. 

In Thy preserving providence extend Thy fatherly care over us 
during these festivities, so that all our doings begun, continued and 
ended in Thy fear may honor Thy holy name. And when the 
revolving years and centuries of time with us shall cease, bring us, 
we pray Thee, to a participation with Thyself in Thine own blessed 
eternity, for the Redeemer's sake. Amen. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



RUSSELL A. ALGER. 
Governor ok Michigan. 

CiTiZKNs or MiciiKi.vN: With great i)leasuro I hid yon wel- 
come to this your Capitol to-day, Jind congratuhite y<m upon tins 
epoch in the history of our State. 

Fifty years have come and gone I and during those years this 
great Commonwealth has grown from infancy to its present 
mighty strength. Then, it was almo.st a trackles.s forest. Now, 
it stands in the front rank of the States of this great Union. 

Michigan, with her natural resources, and peopled by such 
noble women and resolute men, could not be otherwise than great. 

Her educational institutions, headed by her University and 
Agricultural College, are among the foremost of the country ; 
while her other State institutions, with the magnificent Soldiers' 
Home now being built for a cap-stone, will bear favorable compari- 
son with those of any State in the Union. While in agricultural 
products she is unsurpassed, both as to variety and quality, she 
produces more iron, copper, lumber and salt than any other State 
in the Union. 

There are brave men and women here in our midst to-day, who 
have battled with ])rivations and adversity ; to whose energy and 
determination we owe, in a large measure, this great consumma- 
tion. All honor to them, and may they — the pioneers — long 
remain among us to share tlie honors and receive the love and 
reverence so nobly earned. 

At the election in 1835 the total vote cast for Governor was 
8,322, while in 1884 it aggregated 400,348. 

Her population in 1837, was 174,467 ; while to-day, it will 
number fully two millions. These figures are given to enable us, 
at a glance, to appreciate our wonderful growth. 

When, in 1861, armed treason threatened the land, and the 



36 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Government called for men to defend its flag, Michigan responded, 
giving her full quota. It was then she showed her loyalty and 
patriotism. 

According to the census of 1860, our population was 749,113 ; 
and Michigan sent to the front 9U,747 of her bravest and best 
men, or nearly one in eight of her total population, according to 
that census ; men, who grandly sustained the reputation of their 
State, and whose blood stained every battlefield of the war. Of 
these, the " Roll of Honor " shows that 14,855 were killed in bat- 
tle, died of wounds or disease — many of them in that " hell of 
hells," a Southern prison — or nearly one out of every six who 
enlisted. 

Brave men ! A grateful State will gladly care for those 
of your comrades who stood by your side, many of whom 
helped to lay your lifeless bodies away iu far-off graves, there to 
await the bugle-call to your final reward. Hearts there are here 
to-day, that ache for loved ones so early lost ; and indignation 
heats the blood and quickens the pulse of those who made these 
great sacrifices, as they read of the recent triumphant march of 
the head of the rebellion through the South, uttering the same 
old treasonable sentiments that carried the fire-brand of war 
through the South in 1861, and whose pathway was strewn with 
flowers by the school children, en masse, in 1886. 

Let any section of the country teach its children to reverence 
those who took the oath before high heaven to defend their 
country, and then attempted its overthrow, if they will ; but let 
us teach our children that treason is treason, and that never, in 
future, will it be tolerated for a day. 

This is no appeal to sectional prejudice, but is that which 
makes the future of this government safe. Unless we teach our 
children that this country is a heritage ; that to attempt to destroy 
li is wrong, and that to punish those who attempt such destruc- 
tion is right, we would better teach them nothing. 

As we protect with the greatest determination that which we 
value most, so let us with one voice proclaim, that in this broad 
land there is no place for the flag of the secessionist, the anarchist, 
the nihilist, the pagan or the commune, and that all law-abiding 
men and women have a right to their own, whether it be property 
or labor, and that the interference with these rights will not be 
permitted. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 37 

Let us teach them to love their country, to labor for its pros- 
perity, and to defend it if in danger, and to bow to only one flag, 
and that the flag, which, amid shot and shell, has been carried 
victoriously wlierever and whenever the Union has been assailed 
— the grand old stars and stripes. 

Let us with one accord, proclaim to the world, that this great 
land of ours is only open to, and will receive from other countries, 
none except those who are willing to become law-abiding and 
loyal citizens, ready at all times to labor for the country's good in 
time of peace, and to defend her in all times of danger. 



THE FINANCIAL HISTORY OF MICHIGAN 

From Earliest Territorial Times to the Present. 



Hon. EBENEZEil O. GROSVENOR. 

Fellow Citizens : The subject assigned me, ''The Financial 
History of Michigan from earliest Territorial Times to the Pres- 
ent," is too broad and comprehensive for me to expect, or even 
hope to treat with the fullness and accuracy desirable. Properly 
given, it would be a history of the material progress, growth, and 
development of the Territory and State. It is hardly possible at 
this time for want of authentic data, to give nuu^h information as 
to financial management, during the time jVIichigan was under the 
control of the Governor and Judges, in whom was vested the 
executive and legislative authority of the Territory. 

We can get only glimpses of these matters, from laws passed 
from time to time, and as all general salaries and expenses were 
paid from appropriations made by the General Government, the 
disti'ibution of funds made under acts passed by the Governor and 
Judges can at best give but a very partial and imperfect history 
of the management of the finances of the Territory. 

We have been at considerable pains to examine territorial 
laws and documents from the earliest records available, and give, 
as "Territorial Histoi'y," such facts and figures so collected as we 
deem pertinent to the subject, up to the time when Michigan 
assumed to act as a State under a Constitution previously 
adopted. All subsequent to that time we have treated as State 
history, though as a matter of fact, while the Legislature met 
November, 1835, and passed laws, since held by our Supreme 
Court as valid as those enacted by subseciuent Legislatures, the 
State was not formally received into tlio I'nion until ,)anuary 26, 
l.S.'JT. 

The act of admission was, however, made to relate back, so as 
to give the State the benefit of an act of Congress i)assed June 23. 



FINANCIAL iriSTOKY OF AIICniGAN. 39 

1836, authorizing the loaning to the several States the surplus 
revenue in proportion to population. 

So far as I can learn from records and hiws, the only sources of 
revenue aside from government appro|)riations applicable to 
general territorial purposes, were specific taxes imposed on cer- 
tain trades, occupations, etc. 

We give the substance of two laws as samples: 

By act of the Governor and Judges, September 10, I8O0, taxes 
were imposed as follows: 

On carriages, phaetons, etc., per wheel, #1 ; on sleighs and 
winter conveyances, each $2 ; on a stallion 3 years old or over, 
$4; on each other horse or mare, 3 years old or over, 81 ; ou each 
other horse or mare colt, mule, etc., 30 cents; on one dog for a 
family, 50 cents ; on a second dog, for a family, 81 ; on each dog 
over two in a family, $1.50. 

By act of October 7, 1814: 

On each merchant or trader in Detroit, $2o ; on each merchant 
or trader, elsewhere in the Territory, 810 ; on each tavern keeper 
and retailer of distilled spirits, keeping also a billiard table, 828 ; 
on each tavern keeper of same kind not keeping a billiard table 
in Detroit, $10; on each such tavern keeper elsewhere in the 
Territory, $5 ; on each auctioneer in Detroit, $12 ; on each 
auctioneer elsewhere in the Territory, 8t) ; on each occupier of a 
ferry in Detroit, 88 ; on each occupier of a ferry elsewhere in the 
Territory, 63. 

These laws were modified and changed from time to time, as to 
amounts and now trades and articles added ; but the system of 
taxation remained substantially the same until Michigan became 
a State. Through the entire territorial period, appropriations 
were often made in anticipation of funds to be received, and 
interest-bearing certificates were issued for the same, which, to 
some extent, entered into the circulation as money. Very early 
in the history of the Territory, an officer was named at a nominal 
salary, as treasurer ; but liis powers and duties were not well de- 
fined or onerous, as all financial afllvirs seem to have been under 
the management and control of a "Financial Agent," who re- 
ceived and disbursed moneys, issued scrip, etc., a system wliicii 
appears to have been continued in the earlier period of our State. 

The Governor and Judges were restricted in the enactment of 
laws to the selection of laws from otlier States, only so modifying 



40 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

them as to make them applicable to the circumstances and condi- 
tion of the Territory, and the source from which they were 
derived was always given in the acts. These laws were generally 
approved by Congress, the only single exception we have found, 
being an act to incorporate a bank, referred to especially under 
the head of Banks. In examining these early records and laws, 
we are forced to admire the care, prudence and economy mani- 
fested. The labor imposed upon the Governor and Judges in 
proportion to the amounts involved in making appropriations, was 
very great — a special statute being requisite to authorize the pay- 
ment of any bill or claim against the Territory — " the name of 
the payee, the amount of the bill, the article purchased and 
object for which the debt was contracted," being all particularly 
specified in the act with as much minuteness of detail as a mer- 
chant would observe in making an original entry. The suras thus 
appropriated ranged from a few cents to thousands of dollars, the 
exact amounts being given to quarters of a cent. 

The labor of so collating appropriation bills as to give exact 
amounts applied to different purposes, as salaries, court expenses, 
legislation, territorial roads and bridges, public buildings, educa- 
tion, etc., would not be compensated by the value attaching to 
such information, and were such information desirable, it is not 
now attainable, as so many sources of uncertainty are found in 
the fact that in anticipation of the receipts into the treasury, cer- 
tificates were given, and in other cases amounts allowed to run, 
no that the same act often covered matters pertaining to several 
different years. The entire destruction of Detroit in 1805, led to 
a replatting of the village and an eflTort at adjusting claims of 
owners of land under the old plats by assignments of lots in the 
new; all differences in value being adjusted by payments to or 
from the fund denominated the Detroit Fund. In appropriation 
bills, while in general the fund from which the sums are to be 
paid is stated, there are many exceptions, and hence we have not 
deemed it important to attempt any classifications except from 
1832 to 1835 inclusive. 

Not so much for the value of the statistics, as a matter of curi- 
osity, we have examined all acts of ai)propriation during terri- 
torial existence, and found that from J 806 to and including 1835, 
one hundred and one acts were passed, appropriating in the aggre- 
gate, $137,1)68.35^. The appropriation of 1835 was $25,327.05, 



FINANCIAL HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 41 

and included expenses of several " sessions of the Legislative 
Council, taking the census, sustaining the supremacy of the 
laws and maintaining the integrity of the Territory against the 
encroachments of Ohio." 

We give an imperfect classification of the appropriations from 
1832 to 1835 • 

General Territorial expenses $ 2,r)()1.72 

Salaries of Lesrislalive employees 11, 774. .10 

Priuting Legislative proceedinirs, laws, etc 10,979.03 

Fuel, stationery, etc., for Legislative Council. . 3,857.64 

Salaries other than Legislative employees 4,049.61 

Legislative Library 1,244.00 

To preserve the integrity of the Territory 6,000.00 

Roads and bridges. . '. 3,700. 00 

Railroad surveys 1,030.05 

(4eueral court expenses 2.038.45i 

Taking census 1,898.08' 

Aggregating $49,832.88^ 

This classification is no doubt quite defective, l)ut as accurate 
as we can make it from information at our command. Nor does 
it contain entire appropriations made, as some printing was to be 
done at specified rate.s, and laws to be published by newspapers, 
and a small sum paid each on proper evidence of publication, and 
other matters of like character. 

HANKS AND BANKING. 

The earliest legislation on the subject of banking appears to 
have been an act pas.sed by the Governor and Judges, September 
19th, 1806, incorporating the Bank of Detroit for the period of 
one hundred and one years, with a capital of 81,000,000, the 
Governor and Judges being authorized to subscribe for the Terri- 
tory an unlimited amount of stock. Its bills were made receivable 
for all dues of the Territory. Some stock was subscribed by the 
Governor and Judges under authority given them, and seventy 
dollars appropriated in 1806 to pay assessments on the same, but 
how many shares were taken w'e have been unable to ascertain. 
Whether the bank was ever opened for business, or issued any 
bills, is uncertain, as the act incorporating the same was disap- 
proved by Congress March 3, 1807. The next bank incorporated 
was the Bank of Michigan, December 19th, 1817, with a capital 
of S100,000, with authority to increase it to §500,000, the right 
to subscribe stock on behalf of the Territory being reserved, and 



42 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

the circulation limited to three times the amount of capital paid 
in. The cashier of this bank, under several acts of the Legisla- 
tive Council, was made the Fiscal Agent of the Territory (and 
for the State for a short time after its admission), and moneys 
appropriated by Congress for the Territory were deposited with 
and paid from this bank. Ten years later another bank was 
incorporated, and up to 1835, when the State Constitution went 
into effect, ten banks (exclusive of the Bank of Detroit) had been 
incorporated, with an aggregate capital of 11,100,000, which 
under their charters might be increased to 15,000,000. This 
number was increased by the Legislature of 1836 and 1887 to 
seventeen, all with very liberal charters. Several railroad com- 
panies were, by their charters, granted banking privileges, their 
circulation to be secured by pledge of railroad stocks. An effort 
was made by legislation in 1836 to secure the holders of the bills 
of banks then and subsequently to be incorporated, by providing 
for a "Safety Fuud," to be raised by a small tax on the paid-up 
capital of the banks. The project was not productive of very 
beneficial results, as but a small amount was ever paid in, though 
it appears in the reports to the Legislatures as one of the funds 
in the treasury. In the later years of the Territory and earlier of 
the State, bank currency was very abundant, but the circulation 
of such bank bills at their nominal value was very limited ; this 
was especially true of the bills of most of the banks outside of 
Detroit. 

In 1833 an act was passed giving banks sixty days within 
which to redeem their bills after presentation at their counters 
without forfeiture of charter, and in June, 1837, entire suspension 
of specie payments was legalized. This was during a period of 
great financial disturbance and depression throughout the coun- 
try ; and the condition of the banks and the currency in this 
State did not materially differ from that of nearly every State in 
the Union. The feeling in favor of extending the privilege of 
banking to all who desired to engage in it was very strong in the 
early period of our State history, and the Legislature of 1837 
end)odied these sentiments in favor of free banking in an act 
entitled, "An Act to organize and regulate Banking Associa- 
tions." Under this act any person or persons could, by comply- 
ing with certain simple prescribed forms, establish a bank of 
issue; the only requirement rendering it necessary that more 



FINANCIAL HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 43 

than one person should be interested as a stockholder, was found 
in the clause providing for u board of directors of not less than 
five. Each baidc was required to have a capital stock of not less 
than fifty thousand nor more than three hundred thousand dollars. 
When thirty per cent of the capital stock was paid, in legal 
money of the United States, and the circulation secui-ed by bonds, 
notes, mortgages or other securities satisfactory to the clerk and 
sheriff of the county in which the bank was located, the bank was 
ready for business. By the provisions of this act ten per cent, 
additional of the capital stock was required to be paid in every 
six mouths until the whole was paid ; and the banks were to be 
examined once every three months by a bank commissioner. 

This was during the legalized suspension of specie payments, 
and the banks thus organized put large amounts of their bills into 
circulation with no probability of immediate call for redemption. 
This law was amended at the adjourned session the same year, by 
restricting the securities to mortgages upon real estate to the 
amount of the circulation authorized to be approved by the clerk, 
treasurer, sheriff and associate judge (or a majority of them) of 
the county where the bank was established, and the time within 
which stock in addition to the thirty per cent, required before the 
bank was opened should be paid, was extended so as to re(juire 
payment of but ten ])er cent, per year. While the addition of an 
associate judge of the county to the board by whom the securities 
must be approved, seemed an increased guaranty of good judg- 
ment and pro|)er caution in the examination of securities offered ; 
yet when we reflect that county associate judges of those days were 
judges mainly by title and courtesy, our confidence in the finan- 
cial character and sound discretion of the board is not greatly in- 
creased, and we can readily imagine the board so constituted (or a 
majority of them) were easily induced to certify to securities on 
lauds at high and fictitious valuation in anticipation of increased 
value from the rapid development and settlement, stimulated by 
increased business facilities to be inaugurated by the banks, and 
to accept as legal money of the I'nited States, for the thirty per 
cent, to be paid on the stock at organization, the currencv of the 
ininks existing under the same law they were then ap[)lying. 

Some additional security was attempted by increasing the bank 
commissioners to three, who were constantly employed in going 
the rounds of the banks ; but their visits were generally antici- 



44 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

pated, and systematic preparations made to deceive them as to the 
value of securities and by the exhibition of specie borrowed for 
the occasion to reappear at the next bank examined. Under this 
general law the State was flooded with bank currency having 
practically little or no security for its redemption. 

This condition of things could not long continue, and soon re- 
sulted in general prostration. The failure of banks was of daily 
occurrence, and many of them soon in the hands of receivers, and 
etibrts on their part to realize on the securities brought the matter 
into the courts, and at the January term of the Supreme Court in 
1844, the law under which these banks were organized was de- 
clared unconstitutional, all securities rendered worthless, and 
what was known as "Wild Cat" bank bills were sought for only 
as curiosities. 

In 1839 The State Bank of Michigan was incorporated with a 
capital stock of $2,000,000, one-half to be owned by the State 
with seven (increased at the same session to nine) branches, with 
directors elected by a joint session of the two Houses of the Legis- 
lature. This bank and its branches were to be depositories of the 
public funds, and the faith of the State was pledged for the re- 
demption of the bills. The branches were located at Detroit, 
Monroe, Adrian, Ann Arbor, Niles, Jackson, Pontiac, Mt. Clem- 
ens and Marshall. Certain State officers denominated Fund 
Commissioners were authorized to negotiate a loan of $1,800,000 
for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the act. This 
loan was never negotiated and the only organization under the 
law was the branch at Detroit. This act was repealed in 1842, 
and the State probably saved a disastrous experience in banking, 
as was had in internal improvements. At the same session (1842) 
the Legislature repealed the charters of sixty-six banks, all of 
which had forfeited their charters. 

Between 1836 and 1842, during the suspension of specie pay- 
ments, there being little or no coin in circulation, a system in the 
nature of banking (though unauthorized by law), prevailed 
throughout the State. Many business men aud municipal corpo- 
rations issued small notes or bills, often engraved so as to resemble 
bank bills, varying in amount from five cents to larger sums, 
being promises to pay the amounts specified on their face, and the 
same was almost universally received and paid out as money. In 
most cases they were ultimately redeemed, though at the time 



FINAXCIAI. IIISTOKV OF ISIICIITGAN. 45 

wlieu in circulation riubject to large discount, except in the iranie- 
diate vicinity where issued. Business men of the present day, 
with a currency of uniform value throughout the country, at all 
times e({ual to, and readily convertible into coin, can hardly ap- 
preciate the condition of the currency and the consequent etiect 
upon business during this jx'riod, when every person was com- 
pelled to keep at hand and carefully consult (when receiving bank 
bills), the latest bank note detector, and to examine each separate 
note to ascertain as to the standing of the bank, rate of discount 
on its notes, etc., as well as to detect counterfeits which, by reason 
of the multiplicity of banks, each with bills of different designs 
and appearance, was a matter of no little annoyance and diffi- 
culty ; when exchange on New York and the East was high, and 
change could not be made without the use of shin plasters (as they 
were called), when the currency consisted of an indiscriminate 
collection of bank bills, unauthorized shin plasters, State scrip and 
warrants, town and county orders, all at more or less discount, 
and liable to rapid depreciation or entire loss. Since the issue of 
treasury notes (commonly known as "Greenbacks") by the Gen- 
eral Government, and the establishment of National banks, bills 
of State banks have gradually disappeared, and at the present 
time there is not a bank organized under the laws of this State, 
that issues bills. A Michigan bank note is rarely or never seen. 

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

While a Territory, and for some years after admission as a 
State, charters granting corporate privileges for improvements 
of various kinds were granted by legislative authority with great 
liberality, without proper guards and limitations, and but for the 
financial crisis which for a time prostrated all business and 
resulted in the forfeiting of most of the charters granted, the 
State to-day might be materially hampered and its resources 
largely diminished by such charters and grants. Some important 
works of internal improvements were contemplated and surveys 
made by territorial authority, and these were enlarged, extended 
and prosecuted with increased vigor under the State control and 
supervision. The State Government was inaugurated just before 
one of the most extensive and disastrous revulsions in financial 
affairs that has ever occurred in this country. Values of all kinds 
were unsettled, real and personal property were unavailable in 



46 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

payment of debts, the currency in circulation was not convertible 
into coin for even the payment of taxes. A condition of things 
more severely felt and more generally disastrous in a new State 
where estates consisted principally of unimproved and unremuner- 
ative lauds. With no premonition of the impending financial 
crisis, the young State, under the impetus of speculative schemes 
and in anticipation of early development and rapid growth, 
entered at once upon a system of internal improvements embrac- 
ing every section of the State, and for the purpose of carrying 
them into effect, authorized loans to a large amount, and in addi- 
tion to direct State loans, pledged the credit of the State in aid of 
vai'ious corporations. Among the contemplated improvements 
were three railroads across the State, several river improvements 
and canals, and a large amount of money received from loans, the 
sale of lands granted to the State for various purposes, the portion 
of the surplus funds of the United States awarded to this State, 
and from other sources was expended ; and, in addition, a debt 
incurred evidenced by internal improvement warrants, or stand- 
ing in unadjusted claims. These State works involved the appoint- 
ment of many officials drawing salaries and expenses, while most 
of the works undertaken proved entirely unremunerative, and 
aside from the development and settlement of the State thus 
stimulated, almost an entire loss. Two of the railroads, the Michi- 
gan Central and the Michigan Southern, were subsequently sold 
to corporations (chartered for their purchase) at prices greatly 
below tlieir cost, and paid for principally in evidences of State 
indebteduess, and the State terminated its connection with internal 
improvements much poorer, if not wiser, from the experience. 
Under the charters granted to the corporations purchasing these 
roads, a large amount has been paid into the treasury as specific 
taxes, and applied first, to the Sinking Fund (until the debt for 
which those and other specific taxes were pledged was practically 
paid), and then, under constitutional provision, to the Primary 
School Interest Fund. The sale of these roads was authorized in 
1847 ; the amount realized for them was $2,500,000 ; for the 
Michigan Central iB2, 000.000, and for the Michigan Southern 
$50iJ,000, and evidences of State indebtedness to that amount 
surrendered and cancelled. 



FINANCIAL UIS'IORV oK MICHIGAN. 47 



TEUUITOUIAI, A\D STATE LOANS. 

Tlic only special " Loan '" nuidc l)y territorial antiiority, .so tar 
as we can learn, was anthorizcd at the special session in Aiignst, 
1835, by which the Governor was empowered to borrow on the 
credit of the Territory not to exceed $310,000, and to issue scrip 
therefor. An act passed on the same day placed S-"),000 at the 
disposal of the Governor to sustain the supremacy of the laws in 
the Territory in dispute with Ohio. This loan was evidently 
authorized in part to provide funds to meet this approi)riati()n. 
As early as 1809 and during the territorial period, the system 
prevailed of issuing inteivst-bearing certificates to public creditors 
payable when in funds, and these to some extent circulated as 
money. 

The first State loan was by act approved November 14, 1835, 
passed by the first Legislature of the State convened in special 
session, authorizing a loan of 1100,000 for State expenses, and 
the issuing of certificates therefor. 

The next loan, known as the "Five Million Loan," deserves 
special notice, because of the purposes, the circumstances attend- 
ing its negotiation, the changes made in the original contract, 
and the very great loss it entailed upon the State. For the pur- 
pose of raising funds to carry out the general scheme of internal 
improvements heretofore referred to, the Legislature, by act 
approved March 21, 1837, authorized the Governor to negotiate 
a loan of §5,000,000 ; the interest was limited to 5^ per cent., but 
by an amendment at a special session held the same year, it was 
increased to six per cent. The Governor, with such advisers as 
he called to his assistance, undertook the responsible task of nego- 
tiating this loan. Two contracts wei'e entered into with weak or 
irresponsible parties from whom snuill sums of money were re- 
ceived ; but failing to fulfill their engagements, were in turn 
cancelled. .V third contract was entered into with "The Morris 
C'anal and Banking (-'oinpany" for the sale of the entire issue at 
the rate of 97* cents. Subsequently the Bank of the United 
States became a party to the contract, and gave a guaranty for 
the payment of about -S3, 000,000. This agreement contained the 
proper and ordinary provisions and safeguards observed in such 
negotiations, but subsequently the Governor, on behalf of the 
State, consented to modify and change the terms, and to surrender 



4:8 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

the bonds upon part payment, and to rely upon the responsibility 
of the contracting parties for the fulfillment of the agreement. 
The loss to the State resulting from these changes in interest and 
commissions alone, according to a report of a special committee 
of the Legislature, made in 1840, was 155,508.13. From a report 
made to the Legislature in 1847, it appears that there was 
received by the State on this loan as follows : 

On full paid bonds $1,387,000.00 

On part paid bonds 1.332,452.72 

Making entire amount received $2,019,452.72 

From the fact that the bonds had been surrendered by the 
State and in part negotiated in good faith, and part hypothecated 
by the parties who received them from the Governor, the State 
encountered serious difficulty in effecting any satisfactory adjust- 
ment of the bonds hypothecated, and for a few years Michigan 
was I'egarded by some of the financial world as repudiating a 
portion of her just debt. Every effort was made to ascertain the 
owners and holders of the bonds bona fide, and without regard to 
the amount received upon the same by the State, provision was 
made for payment to the holders of the entire amount advanced 
by them, both principal and interest. Tliis action on the part of 
the young State struggling under a load of debt thus created, 
most of the funds realized, together with other resources, having 
been invested in internal improvements which in no case returned 
an income sufficient to pay interest on their cost, and in most 
cases bringing nothing into the treasury, was worthy of the high- 
est commendation and a guaranty of its future financial credit and 
honor. 

By the report of a special committee of the Legislature of 1840, 
before referred to, it was shown that the net amount accruing to 
the State from the $5,000,000-loan, if paid according to the con- 
tract, after deducting commissions, expenses and interest charge- 
able upon the same, would be but *4,0o2,566.82, the large balance 
of $967,433.18 being absorbed in commissions, etc. Depending 
upon the receipts from this loan, the State pledged its credit to 
the amount of .$100,000, each to two railroad companies, the 
Detroit and Pontiac and the Tecumseh and Ypsilanti, guarantee- 
ing their stock, which resulted in almost entire loss. The State 
also loaned S20,000 to the Jackson and Palmyra Railroad Com- 



FINANCIAL HISTORY OF MICHKiAN. 4i) 

pany, and eventually took its franchises in payment and incor- 
porated it into the Micliigan 8onthern. The credit of the State 
was further loaned to tlie amount of S100,Ut)0 to the Allegan and 
Marshall Railroad Company, whose road was never constructed, 
and the amount advanced on the loan entirely lost. A statement 
of the loans made by the State, the purpose, rate of interest and 
amount of each is here given : 

In 1835. For expenses of government "scrip 

issued" $ 100,000.00, (i percent. 

" 1837. Internal improvement loans 5,000,000.00,0 

" 1837. Palmyra & .lackson K. R. Co., Stock 

a:uarantee(l 20,000.00,0 

" 1838. Allegan & Marshall R. R. Co., Stock 

guaranteed 100,000.00, 6 

" 1838. Detroit & Poutiac R. R. Co., Stock 

guaranteed 100,000.00, 

" 1838. Ypsilanti &Tecumscli R. R. Co., Stock 

sruarauteed 100,000.00, 

" 1838. Penitentiary bonds 20,000.00, G 

"1839. " •' 40,000.00,0 

•' 1843. State University bonds 100,000.00, 

•' 1843. Interest on $5,000,000 loan-V)onds 363,324.00, 

1842tol845. Adjustment of 5, 000, 000-loan bonds 1,909,452.03,0 
1846 to 1853. In payment of internal improve- 
ment warrants 265,540.00, 6 " 

1839 to 1842. Delintiuent lax bonds 227,420.67, 6 

1858. Renewal Peuitentiarv, L'niversity and De- 
troit & Pontiac R. R. bonds 206,000.00. 6 

1858. To meet deficiency in revenue 50,000.00, 6 

1861. Renewal of .$5,0()»), 000-loan bonds 2,000,000.00, 6 

1S59. Repairs and improvement St. Marie's Canal 100,000.00,6 " 

1861. Eciuipment and payment of troops bonds 1,249,400.00, T 

1864 to 1865. Bounties tJ volunteers bonds 1,306,000.00, 7 

The amounts given are the sums for which bonds were issued, 
the laws authorizing the loans in some cases giving power to issue 
larger amounts. These loans have all been paid or payment pro- 
vided for; the only outstanding bonds of the State are as follows: 
S21,0()0 part paid 8.'),(H)0,0U()-loan bonds, adjustible at 812,149.5)7, 
payable on presentation (probably lost and destroyed). On de- 
linquent tax bonds (never ])resentcd) 870.00 bounty loan bonds, 
due May 1, 1890, .?221, 000.00, making the entire bonded indebted- 
ness 8243,219,97, for the payment of which full provision has 
been made and the funds set apart. 

TRUST FUNDS. 

By a provision in the first Constitution adopted by the State, 
and still in force, the proceeds of all lands then and since granted 
4 



50 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

to or by the State for educational purposes, were dedicated as a 

perpetual fuud, and the interest annually appropriated to carry 

out the purposes of the grants. These lands have mainly been 

sold under legislative enactments as to price, terms of payment, 

rate of interest, etc. A very large amount has been paid into the 

treasury from these sources and used for general expenses, the 

amounts received being placed to the credit of the proper fund, 

and the interest on such amount, together with all interest received 

by the State on contracts for lauds sold, have been annually 

applied to the specified educational institution or purpose. The 

amount held by the State in trust for educational purposes, on 

September 30, 1884, according to the report of the Auditor Gen. 

eral for that year, was $4,389,524.52, to the credit of the various 

funds, as follows: 

Primary School Fund, 7 per cent $8,184,190 09 

Primary School Fund, 5 per ceut 361,382 57 

University Fund, 7 per cent 497,378 78 

Agricultural College Fund 384,788 27 

Normal School Fund 61,784 81 

Aggregating $4,380,524 52 

The Primary School Fund has been largely increased since the 
practical payment of the State debt, by receipts of certain specific 
taxes from railroads and other corporations as required by the 
Constitution. The interest on these " trust funds" is a perpetual 
charge on the State. During the times we are reviewing, large 
sums of money have been expended for the erection, equipping 
and support of State institutions, such as prisons, reformatories, 
asylums. State University, Normal School, State Capitol, etc. 
Taught by early experience the disastrous results of relying too 
much upon credit and too little upon present ability and resources, 
the State has adopted the rule, safe for States as for individuals, 
of incurring no indebtedness without provision for present pay- 
ment, making no appropriation without at some time levying a 
tax sufficient to meet the same. 

This has been found safe, wise and economical, and seldom, 
since the adoption of this policy, has any complaint been heard 
of burthensonie taxation. A statement of the amounts thus 
raised and expended for a few of the many objects receiving State 
appropriations, will give some idea of what has been accomplished 
without inconvenience or reasonable complaint. This statement 
is taken from reports made to the Legislature in 1885 : 



FINANCIAL HISTOKY OF MICHKiAN. 



51 



Michigan University $ 1,140,871 60 

Norinal School 501,442 09 

Agricultural College (iS7,!):^7 15 

State Public School 5!)8,11G 00 

lustitutioiis for Deaf. Dumb and Blind 1,601, 57(1 HO 

Asvlums for Insane 3,:}15,!)!)6 83 

Primary Schools 9,78!),671 37 

Prisons and Reformatories o, 08:3, 168 61 

Erection and Equipping State Capitol 1,559,256 51 

Aggregating for nine permanent objects $22,284,072 85 

Or lu'iirly ii half million dollars a year for the entire jieriod of our 
State existence. 

We have spoken only of State expenditures, and but partially 
and imperfectly, leaving entirely unnoticed the immeasurably 
larger sums raised and expended by the people in support of 
schools, colleges, municipal corporations and other public matters. 
This financial statement would be incomplete without some refer- 
ence to the rate of State taxation at the different periods of our 
history. 

For the purpose of comparison, wc give in tahuhir form, from 
as early a date as practicable, e(|ualized valuation of entire tax- 
able property, rate per cent., and per capita of State tax, and 
grouped the same into periods of about five years, and give the 
average at each period, from 1840 to and including 1885. For 
these computations as a whole, we are indebted to the Auditor 
General's report of 1885 : 



YEARS. 



Total Equalized 
Valuatiun. 



1840 to 1844 If 31 ,572,806 58 

1845 to 1850 ' 29,093,483 23 

1851 to 1855 ' 84,609,992 68 

1856 to 1860 137,663,009 00 

1861 to 1865 172,055,808 89 

1866 to 1 870 31 >7 , 9(i.-, , 840 92 

1870 to 1875 ():!0, 0(10, 000 00 

1876 to 1880 630,000,000 00 

1881 to 1885 1 810,000,000 00 



Rate per cent. Per Capita 
Mills on Dollar. ofStateTax. 



.2.2 

.3.214 

.1.5672 

.0.8606 

.2.9054 

.1.973 

.1.267(i 

.1.52 

.1.5286 



mills. 



0.30 
0.25 
0.06 
0.03 
0.57 
0.33 
0.68 
0.49 
not given. 



Taking the entire period from 1840 to 1885 inclusive, the 
average State tax has been but about two mills on the dollar, and 
30 cents per capita. And it is probable that could we give accu- 
rately the figures for the entire half century this day completed, 
the rate would not vary materially from what has been given. 



52 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

The entire financial histosy of this State, notwithstanding early 
errors and failures, is such that every citizen may be justly proud 
of the record. 

To-day but fifty years a State, and yet we are permitted to con- 
template, freedom from debt, vast resources already developed, a 
population numerous and equal to any in energy, integrity, enter- 
prise, culture and refinement, public buildings and improvements, 
numerous, substantial and costly ; and, in many respects, adequate 
to the probable needs for many years to come. A great Univer- 
sity, Agricultural College, and Normal School, each ranking 
among the first of its kind in the Union, ample State institutions, 
educational, benevolent, penal and reformatory ; a history of fifty 
years administration in all political and public offices so far re- 
moved from the suspicion of corruption or abuse, that the voice of 
accusation is rarely or never raised ; a reputation for financial 
honor and integrity unstained ; credit and thrift unsurpassed. In 
all this we may rejoice and contemplate with ])ride. Michigan 
to-day, though comparatively young, in all respects stands among 
the foremost of the States. 

So much for the past and present ! What of the future '? We 
may not, except in imagination, peer into the future. Yet in all 
history of peoples or States the present and the past have in them 
much of prophecy or of promise. When, fifty years hence, the 
citizens of this great Commonwealth gather to celebrate the Cen- 
tennial of admission to the Union, though imagination even may 
fail to grasp the greatness of the occasion, and the progress that 
will have been made in wealth, population, education, and gen- 
eral advancement ; of this we may rest assured, that foundations 
in all these departments have been laid deep and broad upon 
which immense superstructures may safely rest, and we may at 
least flatter ourselves with the prospect, and rejoice in the hope, 
that our posterity and successors will have proved themselves 
worthy of the great inheritance. 



MINES AND MINKRAL INTERESTS of MICIIKIAN. 



PROFESSOR CHAS. D. LAWTON. 

Commissioner of Mineral Statistics. 

' Prior to the admission of Michigan as one of the States of the 
Union, and even subsequently, the Territory was held in poor 
repute by the people of the east. This unfortunate estimate 
regarding the value of the country was largely due to the damag- 
ing reports which were made by the government surveyors, who 
early undertook the work of surveying the lands. No portion of 
the United States was ever more severely or unjustly condemned ; 
but the clouds of censure which had settled over its horizon and 
through the mist of which its glories had been so long distortedly, 
or but dimly, viewed, have been dissipated by the dawn of rising 
prosperity, and slowly the State has emerged from the murky 
surroundings of former prejudice into the broad sunlight of appre- 
ciation and contidence. i The manifold advantages of Michigan 
are now everywhere recognized. Comparisons that are at times 
odious, have eliminated misconception and error, indisputable 
facts derived from statistics have (pielled opposition and have 
placed Michigan in the vanguard of States. 

The great bodies of navigable waters which form its borders, 
affonling to it unsurpassed commercial advantages and tempering 
its climate; its ample rainfall and comparative freedom from 
destructive droughts; the fertility of its soil; the variety of its 
products; the value of its timber; the wonderful richness and 
extent of its minerals ; the intelligence, industry and law-abiding 
spirit of its people ; the freedom of its laws; the wise adminis- 
tration of its public affairs, are rapidly exciting the attention of 
the civilized world and rendering the State in its estimation, one 
of the most important in the Union. 

Michigan is a region of agriculture par excellence ; of fertile soil, 
and genial clime, of oaken glades, of stately forests and blooming 
prairie, of smiling fields and pleasant homes, of thriving towns 



54 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

and active industry, of prosperity, health, intelligence, economy 
and obedience to law ; and withal Michigan is a great mining 
State. 

Its deposits of iron, of copper, of salt, of gypsum and of other 
important minerals are unsurpassed, and the annual output from 
these sources is unequalled by that of any other State. 

The salt deposits, the residuum of ancient shallow seas, possess- 
ing unequalled extent and purity, are found in both the east and 
the west margins of the State, in corresponding magnitude, and 
probably stretch beneath the surface of the interior. 

Extensive beds of the most excellent gypsum, readily accessible 
for mining and for distribution, are also found centrally located 
in the agricultural districts. 

Durable stone, suitable for foundations, exist everywhere in 
abundance in the drift formation, and ledges of sandstone, lime- 
stone, etc., suitable for building purposes, exist in many localities, 
and in unlimited quantity. Clays, for the manufacture of brick, 
tile, sewerpipe and pottery are found in endless supply. 

Nor is coal altogether wanting. While the deposits of this 
mineral with us are not comparable with many other States, they 
are still of sufficient magnitude to possess some value and to con- 
stitute a possible resource that at a future day may avail for 
important use. 

The lower peninsula of Michigan, in which the salt, gypsum 
and coal are exclusively found, has neither mountains nor ledges 
of primitive rocks. Its topography is greatly diversified ; the 
conformation of the surface, though generally rolling, nowhere 
attains a considerable elevation. The underlying rocks are hori- 
zontally bedded, and deeply buried beneath the drift formation in 
which rocks of every variety are found, but seldom in situ. They 
belong to the drift of which they are part, and are largely derived 
from the extreme north, from the shores of Lake Superior. Peb- 
bles, boulders, masses of quartzite and of granite, of sandstone, 
diorite, trap and jasper, greenstone and schist, which make up the 
rock formations of the Upper Peninsula, are everywhere found, 
scattered over the surface, and mingled with the soil of Southern 
Michigan. 

IJut the rocks which form the basis of this superstructure of 
drift are horizontally bedded beneath the overlying burden ; the 
upper portions of the series outcrop in various localities in the 
central and most elevated portions of the peninsula. 



MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 55 

The rock formations of Lower Michigan, as determined by ex- 
amiiiatiou of exposures which have been either naturally or arti- 
ticially denuded, are found to consist of the limestone, shales, 
sandstones and sulphates of the Silurian, Devonian and Carbon- 
iferous periods of geologic history. In the outcropping ledges of 
limestone and sandstone, in many places, rock suitable for build- 
ing stone and for lime is obtained. Nearly all the rocks of the 
lower peninsula, however, are wanting in firmness of texture. 
The shales and sandstones are sometimes fine-grained, but soft and 
friable, liable to disintegrate under the dissolving action of the 
elements. Undoubtedly during later Silurian time and subse- 
quently. Southern Michigan constituted a salt-water marsh, or 
shallow sea bottom, and the evaporation from the surface of which 
during a geological time, resulted in the deposition of these saline 
deposits which we are so fortunate as to possess. The region during 
this time underwent changes of level, being alternately elevated 
and depressed at long intervals, above or below the level of the 
sea. Beds of shale, raartyte and gypsum occur with the salt, and 
these arc succeeded by the arenaceous argillacious carboniferous 
rocks of the coal period. They are the dett'itus oi' pre-existing 
rocks which, under the action of the waves, the rains, the winds 
and the frosts, were worn to fineness, to be borne by the waters and 
deposited in the bottom of the sea. The coal field is estimated to 
cover an area of about one-fifth of the central part of the penin- 
sula. The limited seams of coal are intcrstratificd with bods of 
shale, of coarse sandstone and of clay. 

Coal, generally a thin seam of it, has been found in many local- 
ities, but only in a few places has it been rained. It varies in 
thickness of from a few inches to four feet. Having but few ex- 
posures, actual boring has to be re-sorted to in order to determine 
whatever of mineral value may lie beneath the surface in any 
locality. This operation, requiring labor and expense, is seldom 
resorted to except for a specific object. No formations later than 
the coal are found ; if they exist they were subsequently swept 
away in the drift period. 

It is probable that the greater portion of the cmd originally de- 
posited in this State during the i-jioch of the coal formation, was 
worn away and destroyed by the moving glaciers. The soft, 
yielding rock deposits of Lower Michigan were eroded and swept 
away by the great rivers of ice that moved over them from the 



56 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

north and thence were hidden and buried benegth the great 
accumulation of drift and debris. No upheavals or cataclysmal 
changes have occurred. The rocks remain still in the horizontal 
position in which they were originally laid down ; the valleys and 
chasms that doubtless, if the rocks were denuded, would be seen 
to exist, were filled with the drift ; the ledges and precipices that 
abound in the north are, in the lower peninsula, entirely un- 
known. 

In all localities where shafts have been opened, but a single 
workable seam of coal has been found, so that from present knowl- 
edge it may be stated that the stores of this mineral left by nature 
within our borders for future consumption, is not enormously 
large. 

GYPSUM. 

The gypsum deposits of Michigan that are readily worked are 
limited to two localities, but fortunately they are at those two 
points of sufiicient extent and accessibility to suffice for all the 
demands that may be made upon them in the future. These 
beds, justly estimated amongst the most valuable of our mineral 
resources, belong to the carboniferous limestone series, but occur 
in the regular order of superposition only in restricted localities. 
In other places in the same geological level, no indications of 
gypsum are found. 

At Grand Rapids and at Alabaster Point, in both the western 
and eastern margins of the State, exist a succession of beds of 
this mineral which aggregate many feet in thickness. Thus far 
none but the upper beds have been quarried in, and generations 
will succeed one another before the necessity shall arise for resort- 
ing to the lower deposits to provide for the present rate of con- 
sumption of gypsum. The deposits which are now worked at 
Grand Rapids are of sufficient magnitude to meet all demands for 
this mineral, during an indefinite future, even were they to increase 
many fold. 

The purposes for which Michigan gypsum is employed, are for 
the manufacture of stucco and for land plaster, and the mills for 
efiecting both of these results are very elaborate and complete. 
The beautiful frescoes of Italy, that for ages have challenged the 
admiration of the world, are upon walls of stucco, and it is claimed 
that tlie product from the calcining mills at Grand Rapids is no- 
wise inferior for finishing walls and for ornamental purposes to any 



MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 57 

in the market. Certainly it must bo growinj:^ in public apprecia- 
tion and demand, since its manufacture, which began in 1860, has 
steadily increased until it has reached a total of 1,533,185 pounds 
or 229,978 tons, liut the chief use to which this mineral is now 
devoted is of modern origin and is other than for ornamentation. Its 
application to agriculture is the outgrowth of modern investigation, 
and it is by reason of its effects, which experience has ])roved to 
be so efficacious in promoting the fertility of our soil, and the 
prosperity and happiness of the husbandman, that the rich and 
ample deposits of this valuable mineral in our iState become of so 
much importance. Taking into consideration our climate, our 
varied timber soil, which has been found to be so well adapted to 
clover and to wheat, the system of farming that prevails, which 
includes wdieat and clover among its most promising of our pro- 
ducts, it is more than probable that under such conditions as do 
exist, to keep up and enhance the fertility of the land requires the 
full use of gypsum. 

Ground gypsum is thus the cheapest of fertilizers. Its prepara. 
tion began at Grand Rapids with the early settlement of that 
region ; at first in a limited way but with a continually widening 
area over which its apj)reciation extended, as its value came to be 
appreciated more and more and the facilities for its preparation 
and distribution were from time to time extended. Its total aggre- 
gate production since 1845 amounts to 798,744 tons. 

SALT. 

In 1885 Michigan produced more than one-third of all the salt 
consumed in the United States. It furnishes within a small frac- 
tion as much as all the other States and Territories combined — 
3,o00,100 barrels,— nearly double that of the State of New York, 
which was formerly the leading producer. Heretofore the manu- 
facture of salt in this State was confined to the Saginaw valley, but 
now the western margin has come in to supply its quota to the 
aggregate of j)rodu('tion. The salt deposits are found to be no 
less in magnitude or in quality where the borings have been made 
on the shore of Lake Michigan than similar tests have proved them 
to be on the margin of Lake Huron, and great as its production 
has already become, it is likely to assume still vaster proportions 
in the future. Scientific analysis and practical experience have 



58 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

taught that the best quality of salt may be made from the Michi- 
gan brine. The article placed upon the market which is made 
from it, is pronounced on all sides to be as pure and effective as are 
equivalent grades made anywhere in the world. The future of its 
production in Michigan is undoubtedly only a matter of cost and 
demand, the deposits of the mineral in the earth, within our bor- 
ders, it may be assumed, exist in quantity far in excess of our abil- 
ity to exhaust or even to practically lessen its amount. 

The existence of salt springs in the territory was known to the 
Indians prior to the coming of the white men into the country. 
Even the manufacture of salt from the brine was undertaken in a 
limited, crude way by the early settlers. 80 well known was the 
fact of the presence of salt within our limits that the general 
Government made numerous reservations of land, which were sup- 
posed to contain salt deposits, and on the admission of Michigan 
into the Union it was authorized to make a selection of seventy-two 
sections of land where the indications favored the supposition of the 
existence of saline deposits. With the view of making these selec- 
tions judiciously and for other like purposes, one of the first acts 
of the newly-created State was to provide for the prosecution of a 
geological survey. This important work was given in charge of 
Dr. Douglass Houghton, through whose zeal and intercession the 
measure was consummated. 

The business of the manufacture of salt in Michigan as a recog- 
nized industry, may be said to date from 18G0. .Since that period 
it has grown to its present stupendous proportions, adding greatly 
to the wealth and reputation of the State. During this period of 
thirty-five years, thirty and one-half millions of barrels have been 
made at an average cost, during the whole period, of 96 cents per 
barrel. Thus we have in Lower Michigan two important minerals 
which exist in quantity, and are of great economic value to its peo- 
ple — salt and gypsum. Of coal we have little to boast. It is a re- 
gion whose chief industry is agriculture, and the important miner- 
als which it possesses are those which are immediately associated 
with this primal calling. 

In that portion of our territory included in its bounds by Congress 
as an oflfeet for the strip of land on the border of Ohio has grown 
up a mining industry of wonderful proportions. At the time of 
the admission of Michigan as one of the States of the Union, very 
little information respecting the northern peninsula had been ob- 



MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 59 

tained beyond what was known to the early missionaries and 
traders. The country was too far removed from the marts of 
commerce and civilization to attract any particular attention. 
It had been run over, as we know, by explorers, hoping to find 
gold, or silver, or other precious minerals. Specimens of native 
copper had been found in sufficient quantity to establish the belief 
that deposits in phice, of this metal existed in the countiy, l>ut no 
systematic explorations had been made. The early settlers in the 
new territory were too much occupied with the labor of carving 
out homes in the wilderness, to trouble themselves greatly about 
this far-oti" portion of the State from which they were separated by 
water, and which they knew to be comparatively frigid and in- 
accessible, wild and inhospitable, — a region of primitive rocks and 
impenetrable forests ; it is not surprising that time should elapse 
before its riches should be known and appreciated, and that the 
development of its resources should have been slow. The 
Upper Peninsula was given to Michigan by ('ongress as the final 
settlement of a serious dispute ; it was thrown in to soothe the 
wounded pride of an irritated people. 

The magnificent territory thus acquired was made a part of 
Michigan as an offset to a mere strip of land in comparison, yet 
which was regarded as possessing far greater value. But slowly 
the people of our State have awakened to the knowledge of the 
magnitude of this gain, in the exchange which was tlius thrust 
upon them. We are coming to realize that our State possesses in 
the northern peninsula one of the most wonderful and valuable 
regions within the limits of the National domain. Rich in miner- 
als iu an unparalleled degree, producing ores of iron unsurpassed 
in quantity and richness, and native copper in an abundance 
and purity found now hereelse. 

Two centuries and a half have passed since this portion known 
as the region of Lake Superior was first visited by the zealous rep- 
resentatives of the French nation. It was, in fact, the earliest- 
discovered portion of our great northwest. l>ut while other and 
then more favored sections became the marts of commerce and 
teemed with the arts of civilized life, it was two centuries after the 
advent of the white man before the waters of the Great Lake bore 
other than the canoe of the red man, or of the venturesome voya- 
geur ; and the primitive solitude of the sombre forests which skirt 
its borders remained equally unbroken. 



60 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

The Jesuit fathers explored the rock-bound coast of the great 
lake upon which they were the first to enter, and fearlessly pen- 
etrated the trackless wilderness which surrounds it, meeting every 
peril with simple, undaunted courage. 

In 16iJ8 a permanent mission was established at the Sault, and 
three years later one also at Mackinac, both of which places, for a 
period of 150 years, continued to be favorite resorts for traders 
and trappers engaged in the romantic traffic which for so long a 
period formed the basis of the business and commerce of the north- 
west. In times of peace or of war the transparent waters of the 
straits were dotted with canoes or batteaux ; traders, voyageurs, 
and gaily-bedecked savages coming from every quarter, commin- 
gled in traffic and social revelry. It is a region replete with 
savage legend and romantic interest. But how greatly in contrast 
are the batteaux of the traders with the commerce of to-day, the 
products of the fur-hunter with the products of the miner. The 
simple paddle of the savage is supplanted by the powerful wheel 
of the steamship, and the batteaux of the voyageiur, which bore 
away the fur of the beaver, is displaced by innumerable vessels 
that bend their masts to every breeze, and unmindful of portage or 
of foaming rapids, pass with ease and safety to the bosom of the 
great lake. The beautiful straits, so replete with tragedy and 
historical interest, no more reflect from their silvery waves the 
gleam of the scalping knife. Over the graves of massacred vic- 
tims, who heard with terror the war whoop of their murderous 
foes, now echoes the shrill scream of the whistle of the locomotive 
and of the steam vessel. The council fires have gone out before the 
fiercer heat of the smelter; the crack of tlie hunter's rifle is sup- 
planted by the ring of the axe of the lumberman ; the silent 
trapper has fled before the advance of the miner and in the 
stealthy footsteps of the savage warrior treads the eager searcher 
for minerals. The rocks so rugged and forbidding to the early 
traveler now yield millions of wealth ; by the remote stream, 
where was the home of the beaver, is now, perchance, the ponder- 
ous stam[) mill, and far beneath the delving of the fox has pene- 
trated the mining shaft. The railroad and ship canal have trans- 
cended the forest trail and ancient portage, and the rude wigwam 
of the savage and the simple chapel of the missionary have been 
displaced by growing cities and villages, teeming with life and 
activity. 



MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. C}\ 

The occurrence of copper among the Indians who occupied the 
country south of Lake Superior, and also in the rocks of the re- 
gion which constitutes the copper range, early attracted the atten- 
tion of the Jesuit fathers and of the travelers of the northwest, 
and frequent mention of its existence is made in their writings. 
An abundance of copper for the manufacture of trinkets was 
picked upon the shores of Lake Superior and elsewhere. 'J'he 
copper mass that was found on the bank of the Ontonagon river 
was seen and described by L'Hontan as early as 1088. In 1796 
Capt. Jonathan C-arver, who had spent three years in the country, 
published an account of his travels. He declares the region 
bordering on Lake Superior to be remarkable ibr the existence of, 
apparently, an abundance of native copper, and ventures the pre- 
diction that at some future day the mining of it here will be a 
great industry. 

The first effort at mining was directed by Alexander Henry in 
1770. Henry had spent sixteen years in the country and was a 
man of intelligence and education, bilt not an expert in mining. 
He chose as the point for his preliminary trial the vicinity of the 
great copper rock on the Ontonagon river. After spending all 
the money that the promoters of the scheme would furnish, and 
having obtained no valuable results, the undertaking was aban- 
doned. 

Henry, in reflecting on the matter, states the country must be 
settled and peo})led before mining can be carried on to advantage. 

But long prior to the period of this abortive attem})t by Henry, 
the metal which is now so successfully mined and is the source of 
so much wealth and prosperity in this region, was sought for and 
mined by some unknown race that has left us no record to deter- 
mine what manner of people they were, except the rude imple- 
inents they used and the excavations which they made. The 
Indians who occupied the country at the advent of the white men 
had no knowledge of the matter. No suspicion existed that anv 
mining work had ever been performed in this country until within 
a recent period. Then the discovery was made that the ground 
had been previously occupied and that these metalliferous veins 
had been long ago worked and large amounts of copper obtained, 
but at what time and by whom is only a matter of conjecture. Of 
the high antiipiity of this work there can be no doubt, since the 
pits which had been made had become filled up with soil and 



62 H Michigan's semi-centennial. 

decayed vegetation, and were overgrown with large forest trees. 
In the pits, when cleared of the accumulated dirt and rubbish, have 
sometimes been found large masses of copper which the primitive 
workers had unsuccessfully endeavored to remove. At the Minn- 
esota, Caledonia, Mesnard, and at many other mines, masses of 
copper of many tons' weight have been discovered lying at the 
bottom of the pits, covered with dirt and surrounded with stone 
hammers, pieces of burnt wood, and even copper tools and other 
evidences of former labor. These "ancient diggins," as they are 
locally called, were found to be so abundant and became so well 
known and familiar to those engaged here in raining as to cease 
to be a matter of surprise ; in fact they have been, undoubtedly, 
of much service in directing attention to the copper lodes and as 
indicative of their probable value. As in the iron region the 
magnetic needle has guided to the discovery of many valuable 
deposits of ore, so in the copper districts these pits of the ancient 
miners extending along the outcrop of the copper-bearing deposits 
have silently betokened to the eager explorer where was hidden 
the object of his search. 

An instance of the finding of a mass of copper at the Mesnard, 
in 1862, was related to me by Mr. Jacob Houghton. The mass 
weighed 18 tons of pure copper, and had been removed a distance 
of 48 feet from its original bed by the ancient workmen. Abun- 
dant evidence of their efforts was still manifest in the stone ham- 
mers and bits of burnt wood that were found about the mass and 
in the spot from which it had been taken. The mass itself was 
nearly buried beneath the accumulation of earth and decayed vege- 
tation, and forest trees of maximum size were growing over it. 
Finds of this kind were not unfrequent in an early day; but to the 
Indians who roamed the country at the time of its discovery, 
to the Jesuits and voyageurs, this fact of ancient mining was 
unknown. 

Dr. Houghton, who had made an examination of Lower Michi- 
gan and published the results of his observations in 1838, there- 
after extended his observations into the northern peninsula, and his 
otiicial report in 18-11 drew public attention strongly to the region. 

He was greatly impressed with the importance of making a sys- 
tematic geological survey of the country and of doing it speedily 
and thoroughly. As the State appropriation was too small to be 
of much avail for extended geological work in a region so remote, 



MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICIIKJAN. 63 

the })laii was devised of uniting geological ohservations with tiie 
linear surveys;, and to secure this combination Dr. Houghton him- 
self took the contract from the government to make the linear sur- 
veys in the Upper Peninsula with the additional rcijuirement that 
all outcrops of rocks, their strike and dip, and other characteristics 
should be noticed and specimens collected and rclurncd. projjfrly 
labelled and described, with the notes to the department. For tiiis 
additional geological work an increased compensation per mile 
was allowed. 

Dr. Houghton wisely inferred that by connecting the two sur- 
veys he would be able to command a great mass of facts which he 
could himself correlate and systematize. All his plans were ably 
seconded by Mr. Burt, well known as the inventor of the solar 
compass, and who largely directed the surveys of the Upper Penin- 
sula, which were begun in 1S40. Five years thereafter, and Dr. 
Houghton, while engaged in the scientific work in which he had 
unceasingly labored, was unfortunately drowned in Lake Supe- 
rior ; his plans were thus cut short of their consummation. Enough 
however was accomplished to entitle those who performed it to 
grateful recollection and to sadly awaken a deep regret that the 
icy waves of the great lake had not spared the gifted spirit of the 
devoted scientist whom they so rutiilessly engulfed. 

Dr. Houghton's published statements had awakened, abroad, 
great interest in the Laki; Superior region. Explorer- and specu- 
lators flocked there in numbers to search for minerals and to secure 
possession of lauds wliich were granted under permits from the war 
department. Nine hundred and sixty of these permits to occupy 
miniral lands were located in the Upper Peninsula, the larger 
number of which selections covered lands in Keweenaw Point, and 
this portion of the mineral country was teeming with activity 
before operations were conducted elsewhere. Old Fort Wilkins, 
the government fort at Copper Harbor, was the rendezvous for 
explorers, and the starting point for expeditions into the wilder- 
ness. Exj)lorers were abundant ; the field was new ; it was 
uncertain what might be found, but all were stimulated in a high 
degree with enthusiasm and earnestness to find something. 

Search for mineral has in all ages driven men to endless depri- 
vations and dangers tinit scarcely another motive could have 
sufficed to in)pel tliem to meet. To this powerful incentive is due 
the settletueut of remote portions of our land ; it was the impel- 



64 mioiiigan's semi-centennial. 

ling influence that stimulated the pioneers to cross the continent in 
'49 to the gold fields of California. It guided the adventurers to 
the canons of Colorado, to the Black Hills of Dakota, to the 
desert plains of Arizona and to the aerial mountains of Nevada. 
The quest for minerals has carried railways across the continent, 
has made prosperous States and Territories, thriving towns and 
industry where were otherwise, perchance, unsettled and undevel- 
oped territory. • 

Northern Michigan was the first of our great mining regions to 
which the steps of the explorers were directed ; their hopes were 
high, but the results that met their anticipations were few, and the 
disappointments thus created were only relieved on the fortunate 
discovex-y of the Cliff and the finding of the masses of copper 
exposed in that vein at the foot of the greenstone blufl'. This 
inspiring indication with the results that followed the further 
opening of the vein, established confidence in the country and 
stimulated renewed effort. 

Keweenaw Point, Isle Royale and Ontonagon embrace many 
localities where the rocks are exposed to observation, and the first 
mining done in the copper range was naturally confined to the 
points of this description. Isle Royale alone of the copper dis- 
tricts has failed to reveal a paying mine. There are numerous 
copper veins and there is abundant evidence of the work of the 
ancient miners, but no company has operated there at a profit. 
Ontonagon, however, had its great bonanza in the Minnesota, as 
Keweenaw had in the Cliff. These two established the reputation 
of their respective districts and maintained them through many 
years. The success of the Clifi' mine at the very outset of the raining 
industry contributed greatly to encourage others. With a capi- 
tal stock paid in of only $110,905, the mine returned to the stock- 
holders during the 22 years that it was worked, the sum of 
$2,627,660, or a little over 2,000 per cent. 

Strangely enough out of the score of mines that have been 
opened and worked in the Keweenaw district in similar situations, 
barely one among them all has proved a source of profit to its 
owners. The hundreds of shafts that have been sunk unfortun- 
ately became, rather, receptacles for burying treasure instead of 
avenues through which it should flow out. But why the many 
veins should be comparatively barren and the limited few so enor- 
mously prolific is a (uirious phenomenon. It illustrates the uncer- 



MINES AND MINERAL INTEKESTS OF MICHIGAN. bO 

tainty of mining enterprises. The hope is sustained from what 
may he hitlden from view ; the few rich veins that are found estab- 
lish the fact that such do exist, and it is the expectation of discov- 
ing a similar store of wealth that stimulates to ever-renewed 
endeavor. 

In the Ontonagon district mining work was carried on contem- 
poraneously with that upon Keweenaw Point, The prospectors 
in the Keweenaw district inviting the attention of capitalists and 
investors in mining stocks to the probable value of the shares, 
which were offered, were not unfrequently embellished with a dis- 
play of profitable results obtained at the Clifl'; and in Ontonagon 
the fame of the great Minnesota mine proved to be a force equally 
attractive and ])otent. The fame of the Ontonagon region was 
world-wide. Accounts of the monster masses of pure native cop- 
per which the Minnesota and Xational mines yielded were every- 
where published and nearly challenged belief. One of these 
masses found in 1857 was 45 feet in length, 9 feet in thickness 
and an average of 18^ feet in width,; it weighed upwards of 500 
tons, and sold for more than $200,000. The Minnesota was a 
rich mine from the start. The shareholders only advanced the 
sum of $60,000 beyond which the product of the mine itself 
sufficed to supply the necessary capital ; and for every dollar paid 
in the stockholders received back in dividends $30. 

These mines are of the past. The great copper mining district 
is at Portage Lake, in the vicinity of the channel which cuts 
across the Keweenaw peninsula. This area has no equal in the 
history of copper mining anywhere in the world, either in the 
richness of some of its deposits or in the economy with which they 
are worked. Perhaps no mineral de])osit ever discovered has 
possessed the extent and uniform metallic richness of the Calumet 
& Hecla conglomerate. The mine has probably returned more 
money to the stockholders in proportion to the amount which they 
were called upon to advance than any other mine has ever done, 
and it is reasonably certain that the mine will continue to be as 
productive and profitable in the future as in the past. Some of 
the other leading mines in this district, which are opened in far 
leaner lodes, have established a record for economy of working 
that is without parallel in mining history. The Calumet & Hecla 
overshadows all others in the richness of its deposits and in the 
magnitude of its operations. The depth of the mine on the plane 
5 



66 Michigan's semi-centennial, 

of the lode is 3,400 feet and its length is 5,000 feet. The average 
production is 2,000 tons of refined copper per month, and the 
mine has returned to its owners in dividends the net sum of 28^ 
millions of dollars in the period of 18 years. Nowhere else on 
this continent, if indeed, in the world, is there so much powerful 
machinery employed in mining work. If it is a fact that this 
conglomerate deposit without diminution in richness or magni- 
tude, continues to an indefinite depth to underlie the surface of 
this company's property, it foreshadows a metallic wealth that is 
almost limitless. Rich in the present, and assured of the future, 
it is no wonder that the shares of the great mine are a coveted 
possession. 

One of the most notable schemes in the annals of mining was 
the sinking of the Tamarack shaft, recently consummated. Just 
one year ago, — three and one half years from the date of the 
commencement of the work, — the lode was struck at 2,270 feet 
below the surface. From being a thing of doubt and conjecture, 
the Tamarack is now a mine, already producing copper in large 
quantity. In every particular the mine has been a success, and 
the result has verified the best anticipations of the owners. It is 
a remarkable example of the verification of previous estimates 
and an example of the most rapid sinking in hard rock that has 
anywhere been done. When one reflects that this enterprise 
involves the task of sinking a shaft nearly half a mile into the 
earth's crust before even the fact could be determined whether 
the company possessed a copper-bearing deposit of sufficient rich- 
ness to insure its profitable working, he will appreciate the bold- 
ness of the scheme, and when he realizes how successfully the 
task has been performed ; how steadily the work progressed to its 
conclusion; how all the estimates that were primarily made have 
been fully verified in the results, he cannot but admire the skill 
of those who determined and directed the work. The shaft has 
an estimated capacity of 1,000 tons of rock per day^and another 
one of like dimensions is in progress of construction. 

In the early days of mining in this State it would scarcely have 
been possible to have succeeded with such an undertaking as the 
Tamarack. But all that has changed. There is a new order of 
things. The power drill, high explosives, improved hoisting 
machinery, and numberless other valuable appliances that have 
been improved or added within a recent period, have resulted in 



MINES AND MINKKAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 67 

revolutionizing the mining industry and given it an immense stride 
forward. It is now only necessary to ascertain what should be 
done and the work is speedily undertaken and accomplished. 

It is now 40 years since minjng was fairly begun in the copper 
region of" Michigan, and its whole history is a record of" [jrogress. 
The men who are now conducting the mining work are mainly 
from among those who have grown up with the country and who 
have demonstrated their fitness for responsibility during the 
development of the industry. 

The metal is found in the rock in form varying from a micro- 
scopical fineness up to masses of hundreds of tons of weight. 
Formerly the bonanza mines were the ones producing great masses 
and the stamp lodes were little regarded. Now nearly all the 
mines are in stamp lodes, and the mass copper forms so small a 
percentage of the total products as to be of comparatively little 
consideration. 

The manipulation of the stamp rock in the mills of our great 
copper mines has reached a high degree of perfection. Large 
expenditure is incurred and every means is adopted to secure the 
best possible results. The advance which has been made in this 
department of mining work from the crude iron-shod wooden 
stamj) and simple separators of an early day to the stupendous 
structures with their intricate machinery that now so successfully 
perform the work, is certainly wonderful. The primitive mill 
wherein could be crushed and manipulated but a few tons of rock 
per day, and at a cost too great for a profit to accrue, has given 
place to those with a capacity of 1,000 tons per day, and with all 
the facilities for manipulation so complete that were it not au 
accomplished fact the low cost at which the result is reached 
would hardly be credited. It would scarcely seem possible that 
rock which yields less than lo jwunds of copper to the ton can be 
mined at the depth of 1,000 feet below the surface, hoisted, run to 
the rock house, sorted and crushed, thence taken by rail 3i miles 
to the stamp mill and there subjected to the various and intricate 
manipulations by which the mineral is separated that is subse- 
quently conveyed to the smelting works to be cast into ingots ; 
whence finally it finds its way into the market and is sold for 
>;l.nr)I It cannot, I say, be fairly credited that this is accom- 
plished, the rock mined and manipulated at this low cost, and 
after paying all expenses there is a margin of profit on the year's 



^H Michigan's semi-centennial. 

work sufficient to return to the stockholders in dividends the sum 
of $40,000. Yet this was the result at one of the Portage Lake 
mines the past year, and is but a repetition of what has been 
accomplished in previous years, and in fact is but an example of 
what is done, in a varying degree according to circumstances, at 
all the leading mines in the Michigan copper region. The per- 
centage of cost has been constantly reduced by the gradual increase 
in the magnitude of operations. All the elements that enter into 
the problem of successful mining are thoroughly studied by our 
mining men. As the price of copper diminishes, as the working 
of leaner lodes is undertaken, a more careful consideration of all 
the conditions that, when applied, shall result in the production of 
copper at such a cost as shall leave a margin of profit, has to be 
met. However difficult the problem is, it is successfully solved. 
The relation of all the factors which enter into it is understood 
and defined. Probably nowhere in the world is mining work in 
advance of that in the copper district of Michigan. 

IRON. 

While the knowledge of the existence of copper in the country 
bordering on the south shore of Lake Superior was one of the 
facts earliest made known to the world, none of those who early 
visited the country had, apparently, learned that the ancient rocks 
of this far-off region contained also in ample supply and richness, 
a mineral that has contributed in far greater measure to the 
world's progress than the one of whose existence they found so 
much evidence. But both were here in quantity and of a quality 
unsurpassed in the mineral regions of the world, awaiting the 
time for their discovery and development. It was destined that 
more than two centuries should elapse ere the existence of iron 
ore should be determined and made known to the world, and the 
small product which followed upon the heels of this discovery, 
has steadily grown into a stream that now annually pours into the 
markets of the country more than two million tons of ore. 

Michigan is now the chief iron ore producing region in the 
United States. In fact, it furnishes upwards of one-half the total 
production of the country. The credit of the discovery of iron 
ore in (juantity and in place is due to a party of government sur- 
veyors who, under Mr. Burt, on September 19, 1844, in running 
the east line of section 7, town 47, range 27, where are now the 



MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 69 

Jackson mine and the city of Nagaunee, found outcrops of ore at 
several points. They state tli^t they were led to make especial 
search for these deposits from the fact of observing along this line 
unusual defections of the magnetic needle, a matter which their 
instructions re(iuired them to note. In the following year, Mr. 
P. M. Everett, of Jackson, Mich., accompanied by four men and 
under Indian guidance, visited the same locality and found the 
remarkable outcrop, which they subsequently named the Jackson 
mine. This land he secured by a permit from the war depart- 
ment. 

The party was not in search of iron ore. They had been led to 
hope, from the statements made by the Indians who had accom- 
panied them, that they should find some metal which they deemed 
of more value than iron. The Jackson Iron company was formed 
and the land purchased of the government at S2.50 per acre. 
The first president of this, the earliest of iron mining companies 
in Michigan was A. V. Berry, who recently died in Jackson. It 
was not only the first iron mine opene'd in the State, but has ever 
been and still continues to be, a mine of leading importance. 
The first ore was tested in a forge near Jackson in 1846, and in the 
following year the construction of a forge was begun on the Carj) 
river, three miles from the mine, at which the manufacture of 
blooms was commenced in 1848. Thus the Jackson company was 
also the pioneer iron maker from the ores of Lake Superior. A 
few tons of ore were taken to New Castle, Pa., in 1850, and made 
into blooms, and two years later a larger amount was melted into 
pig iron in a furnace at Sharon, in the same State, and in 185() a 
shipment of OjOOO tons was made. The Cleveland and Lake Su- 
perior iron companies were formed, and like the Jackson were 
engaged in tlie struggle for existence. The C'leveland comi)any 
built a forge with two fires at Marquette, in which, and in the 
Jackson company's forge about 25,000 tons of ore were turned 
into blooms, but no money was made, and after 1856, the period 
when the shipments of ore from the country began, the work in 
the bloomeries was abandoned. 

In operating these early mines both in the iron and in the cop- 
per districts, there was much to contend with which continually 
occasioned disappointment and financial embarrassment. Trans- 
portation at that time was irregular and expensive. There was 
no canal at the Sault, no vessels, no roads in the country, no 



7i> Michigan's skmi-oentennial. 

agriculture, uo skilled labor, uo supplies for meu and teams, no 
materials for construction and repairs except such as were obtained 
by the uncertain and unfrequent communication from below. 

It having thus become apparent to those who early engaged in 
the development of the iron mines that no suitable progress could 
be made until better facilities for transportation were secured, the 
construction of a railroad from the mines to the lake, 13 miles, 
naturally suggested itself ; but though the matter was broached 
in 1851, it was not until 1857 that a railroad was completed and in 
operation. Previously, however, the iron companies had jointly 
built a plank road which sufficed until the railroad was con- 
structed. 

Of greater importance to the development of the mining re- 
gions was the building of the ship canal at the Sault de Ste. 
Marie. This artificial waterway around the rapids, which occur 
in the channel connecting Lake Superior with Lake Huron, 
through which vessels could readily and safely pass from one lake 
into the other, thus affording uninterrupted navigation between 
Lake Superior and the lower lakes, was the turning point in the 
history of Lake Superior mines. Previous to this everything 
transported by lake — and there was no other method of transpor- 
tation at that time — was subject to portage and re-shipment in 
both directions. 

Direct and complete commercial communication was imperative- 
ly demanded, and Congress having granted 750,000 acres of land 
to aid in the construction of a canal to overcome this barrier, in 

1852, commissioners were appointed, a company organized and 
chartered, and the work of construction began in the spring of 

1853, and in June, 1855, the canal was opened to the public. The 
following year the regular shipments of ore were begun to the coal 
regions of Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

At the time of the completion oP the canal another project of 
similar character was originated, which was to build a railroad 
from the mines to the head of Green Bay, on Lake Michigan, a 
distance of 62 miles. The work was not consummated, however, 
until December, 1863, at which time the road was opened to the 
public. At the terminus of this road at Escanaba, as had pre- 
viously been done at Marquette, an extensive ore dock was built 
which rendered the matter of transporting ore from cars into ves- 
sels a work easily accomplished. 



MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. i 1 

The development of the mineral resources of a country are so 
intimately blended witii the improvement of its facilities for trans- 
portation as to render it essential in considering the progress of 
the former to give due credit to the latter. 

Iron ores having a low value per ton as compared to more pre- 
cious minerals, must have the advantage of cheap transportation 
before they can become available. The iron region of Michigan 
is especially fortunate in this regard ; it has the cheapest and best 
of all means for transportation of its ores from the mines direct to 
the coal fields, and the necessary connections of the ore fields 
with the lakes, so that the advantage of water communication 
could be made fully available and have been met ; each iron dis- 
trict of the peninsula is provided with one or more railroads. One 
may now travel from Detroit or Chicago to all points in the iron 
region and to the co{)per district, also, directly by rail. The pro- 
fits of the transportation of ore has in recent years stimulated tlie 
building of railroads to reach the mines where has been made such 
development as gives a reasonable assurance of the possession of 
ore in paying quantity. 

The development of the iron mining industry in Michigan has 
been made with extraordinary rapidity. In no iron mining 
region in the world has there been greater progress. In 1856, 
the period when the shipments of ore were begun, 6,790 tons were 
sent out. Twenty-six years later and the annual product reached 
2,656,933 tons of 2,240 pounds, worth not less than 812,000,000. 
It is but oOyears since iron mining was begun in a limited, primitive 
way, and already the aggregate production during these years is, 
in round numbers, 27,000,000 gross tons. This result has been 
accomplished in so brief a time, in the face of greater difficulties 
than have been encountered in any other iron region in the country, 
and in no other mining section has there been brought into the 
business so much energy, such varied and consummate skill in 
searching for ores and in adopting the means to develop them ; in 
originating or availing themselves of the most effective methods, 
the most expensive and powerful machinery and appliances, as in 
the iron district of Michigan. 

In times of depression there are many mines which, though not 
alti)gether valueless, but in which the ore, being of comparatively 
poor quality, are obliged to modify their operations, or to suspend 
altogether. Not so the old mines, those of established strength 



'72 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

and reputation ; these continue with little abated force through 
good times and through bad. Whatever the conditions of the 
market, the output of the larger mines remains uniform. 

For the first ten years, or until 1864, the Jackson, Cleveland 
and Lake Superior were the only mines from which ore was 
shipped, and these mines, which have contributed so greatly to es- 
tablish the reputation of the district, are still among the larger 
producers ; still maintain their early supremacy both for quantity 
and quality of ore. In fact the product of the Lake Superior 
mine in 1882, of 296,509 gross tons, has never been equalled by 
any single mine in this country. 

Until 1877 the production of ore in this State was confined to 
Marquette county. The chief mines of this district yield hard 
specular and magnetic ores, and these ores still constitute 60 per 
cent, of the entire product of this district. Nowhere else in the 
State is strictly hard ore obtained, and the district is still the 
largest pi-oducer, having in 1885 afforded nearly a million and a 
half of tons. 

In 1877 shipments began from the Menominee range which, 
within a year thereafter, reached a million tons annually, and it 
still holds the place which it immediately assumed of being a 
large producer of most excellent ore. Some of the mines in the 
Menominee range are among the most remarkable in the State, 
both as regards quantity of product and quality of ore. But even 
the wonders of this surprising section seem likely to be eclipsed 
by the new district which, though the latest to claim our atten- 
tion, is possibly not the least in value. The development in this, 
the Agogebic range, is the most important addition that has been 
made to the mineral interests of the State since the discovery and 
opening of the great ore deposits in the Menominee region nearly 
a decade ago. 

There is much in the rock formation of our iron region to tax 
the patience and skill of the miner and the geologist. The ore 
occurs in the rocks with which it is associated in every manner of 
form of deposit. These deposits possess great irregularity, and 
there is little certainty where they may be found or to what ex- 
tent they will continue. Some of our mines already have consid- 
erable depth with no sensible lessening of the ore. The opinion 
has prevailed that the hard specular ore deposits are more persis- 
tent than the soft. That there is ground for this theory cannot be 



MINES AND MINKRAI. INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 73 

denied. The old mines which are producers of'spccuhir ore, con- 
tinue, as of yore, to yield their accustomed product. The mines 
that early gave to this country its reputation still continue in an 
equal degree to maintain it. 

As time goes on there niust be an accumulation of scientific 
facts that shall lead to a better elucidation of the much compli- 
cated geology of our iron region. There are abstract jjrobieras 
to be solved, in which many elements are to be considered. The 
Lake Superior region is geologically of great antiquity : the rocks 
have been subjected to every manner of elemental force and 
change of character and form. It is a tangled skein that re(iuires 
every appliance of modern science in the hands of the skilled 
observer to attempt to unravel it. The satisfactory solution of 
the problem of the origin of our iron ore deposits remains to be 
given ; whether through chemical action the iron oxide occupies 
the space formerly held by some other mineral, which is displaced ; 
whether the ore beds were originally jasper out of which the silicia 
had been dissolved, or whether of vegetable or igneous origin, or 
originating from several causes, is a question yet to be satisfac- 
torily answered. It is not difficult to broach an hypothesis and 
to discover facts to support it. But the theory must be found 
that covers all these facts, and all the facts must be discovered 
and correlated. The great forces that were at phiy in the forma- 
tion of these ore beds have left their traces in the rocks, and the 
record may be deciphered. Very much has been done in this 
direction ; some of the laborers in the field of iiivi'stigation in our 
iron region have advanced our knowledge vastly, but we have not 
yet reached the full interpretation of the history which the rocks 
themselves have for ages held locked up in their constituent 
crystals. Fortunately this work is in proper liands. 

Notwithstanding the thousands of workmen, embracing all 
nationalities, employed in our mines, entire harmony has ever 
prevailed between them and their employers. The strikes 
and disgraceful conflicts which have been so common else- 
where are almost unknown in our mining region. No general 
strike has ever occurred, and none has been of long duration. 
Industrious miners are able to provide well for themselves and 
their families. They are well fed, well clothed and housed. The 
children enjoy the advantages of good schools. Our beneticeut 
school laws find no better upholders than the mining districts of 



74 Michigan's se^ii-centennial. 

the Upper Peninsula. There are many men in this peninsula now 
prominent in their callings, who began as common laborers in the 
mines, but who, by their industry, thrift and intelligence, have 
accumulated wealth and acquired positions of influence and im- 
portance. Certainly our mines afford as favorable opportunity 
for the improvement of one's fortunes as are found in other voca- 
tions. 

Twelve years ago in the iron region were found only open cut 
mines, now nearly all are underground and many have very 
extensive openings beneath the surface. Not uufrequeutly one 
will meet with, in visiting one of our important mines, a succes- 
sion of great cavities that, if a stranger, will excite his curiosity 
and wonder ; but a sudden trembling of the earth beneath his 
feet and muttered sounds ascending from its depths remind him 
that the wide chasms that meet his eye are not the only ones 
embraced in the ground upon which he stands. Investigation 
reveals to him the fact that far below the level of the cavities into 
which he gazes are others wherein the light of day never enters — 
caverns wrought by brawny men, no less in magnitude than these 
which he openly beholds. And anon, &,s he ponders, the rum- 
bling of the ascending skip strikes his ear, and there is revealed 
to him in its contents, as it comes into view, the prize for which 
all this toil is endured. 

SANDSTONES. 

The sandstones of the Upper Peninsula which skirt the south 
shore of Lake Superior aflTord deposits of brownstone exceedingly 
valuable for building purposes. Quarries in this rock liave been 
opened at Marquette and L'Anse, and the stone which has gone 
to Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, etc., has become greatly 
esteemed for its beauty of color and excellence of texture. Archi- 
tects everywhere who have examined it are enthusiastic in its 
favor. The brownstone is one of the layers from the Potsdam 
series, which at the time in the Silurian period covered the entire 
region, but is now, owing to tlie subsequent action of the denud- 
ing forces of nature, confined to a limited area. To these' sand- 
stones belong the celebrated Pictured Rocks, so frequently described 
in the early references to this country. 

The quarrying of sandstone is only in its infancy, but these 
deposits are a mineral resource of undoubted future importance. 



MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OK MICIIKJAN. 75 

SLATE. 

It is well known that we possess in the vicinity of Huron Bay 
extensive deposits of slate tliat afford this material for roofing and 
other purposes, of an excellence that is not excelled by any pro- 
duced in the United States or elsewhere. In color and texture 
this slate leaves nothing to be desired, aud it undoubtedly exists 
in unlimited quantity. There is no dissenting opinion from the 
judgment expressed by all who are qualified to determine, that the 
rock is adapted to the manufacture of not only the best roofing 
slate, but for such other purposes as the superior grades of this 
mineral are elsewhere employed. The deposits are contiguous 
to Lake Superior, thus giving the advantage of cheap water 
transportation to the important cities of the country. Thus 
far but a single quarry is worked, which pn)duces about 5,000 
squares per annum. 

GOLD. 

F'roin time to time in the history qf our northern peninsula pub- 
lic interest has been awakened in reputed discoveries of i^old and 
silver ; hut while nothing of apparently much importance has 
grown out of these discoveries, they have kept alive a slight 
degree of expectation, a belief in the possibility of the existence in 
our rocks of veins of quartz which carry gold and silver in paying 
quantities. Indeed, the recent results attained at the gold mine 
now working in the vicinity of Ishperaing (the Ropes), indicates, 
as do many other facts which have come to light in the past, 
that the hope is well founded. 

We regard Michigan as a great agricultural State. Wc speak 
with pride of the leading rank which it holds for the production 
of wheat, of wool, of fruit ami many other articles of argiculture 
for the production of which it is noted ; but the average farmer, 
while coiigrutulating himself upon the amplitude and variety of 
the production of the fruits of his calling, may overlook the fact 
that it is for its minerals, and not for its agriculture, that our 
State is chiefly remarkable. That it is only as a mining State 
that Michigan ranks first in the Union. 

Our mineral interests are the greatest of which our State can 
boast. They probably contribute more largely to the sum of 
human prosperity than do any other of the products of the State. 
Our annual production of iron, of copper, and of salt bear a 



76 Michigan's semi-oentemnial. 

larger proportion to the total of the world's supply of these miner- 
als than does the yield of our farms to a like aggregate of agricul- 
tural production. It is safe to assume that the loss of all the 
grains and fruits which our soil so bountifully supplies would be 
less seriously felt by the world at large than would the extinction 
of the product of our mines. Mining is the chief industry of a 
large section of our State ; of an area comprising more than one- 
third of its territory and occupied by more than 120,000 of its 
people. It is here an industry which is comparatively new, but 
what wonderful progress it has made ! To what a position it has 
attained and to what a future it is destined ! 

During the brief period of the third of a century there has 
been accomplished a development in our mining region which jnay 
well excite our wonder and admiration. And when we consider 
the magnitude of the industry that has caused it, its apparently 
unlimited capacity for enlargement, and the effect which this 
increase must occasion in the growth and importance of the coun- 
try, we may well view with complacency the past and be pardoned 
for entertaining seemingly extravagant hopes of the prosperity 
which the future has in store for it. The early missionaries who 
first traversed the coast of our mineral peninsula, encountered 
much at which they mareveild; but more than two centuries have 
elapsed since its wonders were first described, and it is marvellous 
and wonderful still. The reality of its resources transcend the 
most sanguine conjectures of the early travelers, and this "fag end 
of creation," as Baron L'Houtan epitomizes it in 1688, stands 
among mineral districts as does the great lake, whose waves it 
limits, among fresh waters, the Superior. The Upper Peninsula 
is no longer an isolated, dependent region ; it is now accessible by 
numerous lines of boats in summer, which regularly ply between 
its harbors and the ports of the east, and by railway thorough- 
fares which at all seasons afibrd direct and rapid communication 
with the country. Its position as a mining region is established, 
and the reputation of its great mines is world-wide. It is a region 
which has developed a great prosperity and has still greater possi- 
bilities. Its mining resources are permanent, and anon in the 
future must be added a diversity of other interests for the conduct 
of which there is every inducement. The basis of all its growth 
and prosperity must be in the future as it has been in the past, — 
its mines and minerals. 



MINES AND MINKKAL INTERESTS OF MICMKiAN. i i 

Its deposits of iron and copper are so extensive, so phenomen- 
ally rich and pnrc, the region is possessed of such cheap water 
communication, has sucli an abundance of timber, is so elevated 
and healthy, as to place it far in the van with the chief mining 
regions of the world. 

This northern peninsula of Michigan, from its great extent of 
coast line of navigable waters, from its accessibility and the ease 
with which it may be reached and traversed, from the coolness 
and salubrity of its air and climate, from the extent and richness 
of its mineral deposits, stands pre-eminent among mineral dis- 
tricts. Its deposits of iron and copper are nowhere surpassed, and 
from no other region can these minerals with less difficulty, or 
with greater economy, be mined and transported to the markets of 
the country. 



ADDHESSliS mil HALL OF REPIIESENTATIYES. 



Hon. henry CHAMBERLAIN, Presiding. 

Men and Women of Michigan : We have assembled to-Jay 
to celebrate the semi-centenuial anniversary of the admission of 
Michigan into the Union of States. 

The large number of persons present, and the intense heat, I 
am certain will not prevent you from listening to the able men 
who have consented to address you on this occasion. 

Remember, if you are crowded and the heat is oppressive, that 
our fathers on a hot June day, more than a hundred years ago, 
fought the battle of Bunker Hill. 

I take pleasure in presenting to you (he needs no introduction), 
ex-Chief Justice Thomas M. Cooley. 

THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF MICHIGAN. 

Hon. THOMAS M. COOLEY. 

Generations of men come and go, ripening with years for the 
Inevitable harvest ; but institutions in harmony with eternal laws 
may expand and strengthen as the cycles of time roll on, and 
with every passing century strike their roots deeper, and take on 
some new form of perennial youth. 

It is the founding of a new commonwealth we celebrate to-day; 
one of a mighty family, whose founders accepted equality as the 
true germinal principle of States, and trusted, by just and equal 
laws to ensure, as far as government may do so, the general hap- 
pine.ss of all. Availing themselves freely of the wisdom of past 
ages, but relying mainly on the results worked out in the cruci- 
ble of experience, they seemed to strike the true mean between 
the conservatism that blindly and reverently follows the past, and 
the wild and restless radicalism that still more blindly attempts 
to anticipate the future, so that they had the unique fortune to be 



ADDRESS OF HON. THOMAS M. t'OOLEV. 79 

the founders of institutions which other nations at first (U^spised, 
then distrusted, tl>en came gradually to respect, and at last to ad- 
mire and to imitate, until the mother country herself crowns with 
her praises the memory of Washington, thankful that through the 
overthrow of her armies there was given to the world the price- 
less boon of American liberty. 

It was certain from the beginning of time that a notable com- 
monwealth would some day grow up between the great lakes. 
The abundant provision which nature had here made for the 
wants of man was prophecy for it. Such fertility of soil, such 
wealth of forest and stream and lake and mineral deposit were 
certain, when the sun-light of discovery made them known to the 
world, to attract a colonization intent on their development. And 
if the lower peninsula in respect of natural resources left any- 
thing to be desired, the upper peninsula more than made good any 
deficiency ; for its inexhaustible mineral stores only awaited the 
magic touch of skilled industry to be converted into productive 
wealth for the enjoyment of such fortunate people as should 
possess them. 

A panoramic historical view of this region, beginning with the 
first meager accounts we have of it, would be of intense interest, and 
give us many startling surprises. First, we should see on a back- 
ground of almost total darkness the despei*ate struggles of power- 
ful tribes of Indians contending in their savage way for its pos- 
session. Then a day of promise seems to dawn when the Jesuit 
fathers come, inspired with the purpose to convert the wandering 
tribes of savages to the true faith, but destined to give tireless 
labor for a harvest which seems but scanty when they come 
bringing in their sheaves. Not altogether in vain, however, do 
they labor, for on the picture we trace how the gleam of their 
mission fires lights the way for trade and settlement, and how the 
early commerce finds protection in the rude cross planted at the 
missions, about which the Indians gather with their furs and 
peltry for barter. iShortly appears upon the canvas the vener- 
ated figure of Father Marquette, who in 1068 plants at the Sault 
Ste. Marie the first permanent settlement in Michigan, and three 
years later founds the mission of 8t. Ignatius on the Straits of 
Mackinaw. Thirty years more roll on, and the Chevalier la 
Motte Cadillac is seen to select with unerring sagacity as the .site 
for his town the commanding position now held by the commer- 



80 michk^an's semi-centennial. 

cial emporium of the State ; but the town he established grows but 
feebly under the monopoly of trade which represses the energies 
of its people until it passes under British control. Then imme- 
diately the gloomy and threatening countenance of Pontiac rises 
before us, and we have in succession the dramatic surprise and 
capture of Mackinaw with the massacre of its garrison and 
traders, followed by the close and persistent siege of Detroit, in 
the progress of which, first romance, and then tragedy, excite in- 
tense interest. And then all through the war for Independence 
the lines of British influence over the Indians are seen to center 
at Detroit, which is the mart for captives, and the place where 
scalps, torn from the heads of men, women and children in the 
back settlements, are gathered in and paid for. Even after the 
treaty of peace the baleful British influence over the Indians is 
not withdrawn until two American armies have been disastrously 
repulsed, nor until a third, under Gen. Wayne, has annihilated 
the savage power. 

Willingly we allow so gruesome a canvas to be rolled up from 
our sight, that we may open the record-book of American suprem- 
acy. And here we find the very first pages radiant with the 
history of that grand and inspiring event in our national life, the 
founding of territorial government for the country northwest of 
the Ohio, on the principle of entire and absolute exclusion of 
chattel slavery. 

When the founders of the new government thus took stand in 
advance of their age, they builded not wisely merely, but better 
than they knew, for their act was such " a deed done for freedom " 
as sends " a thrill of joy prophetic " through the universe. In 
thus putting slavery under perpetual ban a blow was struck at 
oppression everywhere, whose echoes were never to die away until 
the conscience of the civilized world should be so quickened that 
in America every shackle should fall frcun human limbs, and even 
in distant Russia church bells should ring in a jubilee of emanci- 
pation. 

In the fullness of time Michigan, fourth in the list of free 
daughters of the old Northwest Territory, was decked with the 
honors of incipient statehood under the same perpetual dedication 
to equal rights and universal liberty. It was fortunate in its 
name, which is American, derived from Indian words signifying 
a great lake. Mr. Jefferson had proposed for it the classical 



ADDRESS OF UvS. TIIUMAS M. COOLKV. 81 

appellation of Cliersonesu.s, but a kindly Providence spared it the 
hard fortune to be thus named, and when it was organized in 1805, 
inspired its godfathers to give it the appropriate christening. In 
other particulars it was not so fortunate, and the early annals 
form dismal reading. In the very year of organization Detroit 
was wholly burned to the ground, and its people rendered home- 
less. And while the little settlement was still struggling with 
adversity came on the war of 1812, and the revolutionary soldier 
who had been made Governor and entrusted with the defense of 
the lake region, proved wholly inadequate to the military responsi- 
bilities of his position, and Detroit, under the most humiliating 
circumstances, was delivered into the hands of the enemy. Then 
came the massacre of Kentucky's brave sons at the River Raisin, 
and the banishment of worthy citizens who refused to turn trai- 
tors; but competent leadershi[) soon breasted and turned back 
the tide of success, and in little more than a year Perry had won 
possession of Lake Erie, Harrison had chased the British array 
across the river and broken it uj) in' a decisive battle, and Col. 
Lewis Cass had been sent to Detroit as Military Commandant, 
soon to be followed by a commission as Civil Governor. 

If the first appointment of Governor for the Territory had 
proved unfortunate, in the second the people found ample com- 
pensatiou. Gov. Cass had been a pioneer in Ohio; he knew the 
west and its needs, and during the war he had become well known 
to the people of his new government. He was of vigorous, intel- 
lectual and physical constitution ; he was a man of culture and 
courtesy ; he was of pure life, so that with no aflectation of dig- 
nity he commanded respect ibr abilities and deportment, and 
became a social force of marked and permanent benefit to his 
people. In his administration of public affairs it was soon per- 
ceived that he was a statesman in no narrow sense; that he thor- 
oughly understood the interests committed to his charge, and 
that he might be relied upon to advance and cherish them with an 
energy proportioned to a nature so robust and vigorous. 

To many who gather here to-day it would be repeating a thrice- 
told tale to recount how Gov. Cass, by just and firm treatment of 
the Indians, preserved their friendship, and purchased in fair con- 
vention vast tracts of their lands ; how he contributed to the 
opening of the Territory to settlement by means of good roads 
and the bringing of the public lauds into market ; and how, with 
6 



82 Michigan's semi-uentennial. 

a statesmairs perceptiou of the real point of danger in a Demo- 
cratic republic, he urged upon the Legislature from session to 
session that competent provision should be made for educating in 
the public schools all the children of the Territory. Xor was his 
interest in public education bounded by the narrow limits of 
elementary instruction, but comprehended the best and the high- 
est, so that even in one of his treaties with the Indians we find 
him making a beginning in University endowment. 

When Gov. Cass was called to the government but few set- 
tlers of American birth had as yet located in the Territory, but 
these few were 

" The first low wash of waves where soon 
Shall roll a human sea." 

The population swelled rapidly until in 1830 it numbered up- 
wards of thirty-two thousand. But in the following year the Ter- 
ritory lost its chief magistrate who was summoned to a seat in the 
cabinet of President Jackson. The loss was not made good by 
the appointment of Mr. George B. Porter of Pennsylvania, to the 
vacancy, for the new appointee was slow in coming to his govern- 
ment, and was much absent from his post afterwards. Under the 
law in his absence the duties were performed by Stevens T. 
Mason, the territorial Secretary, who, when the I'esponsibilities of 
government devolved upon him was still but a boy, without legal 
capacity to buy a horse, or give a note of hand. But the acting 
Governor was ambitious and able, and he was shortly made the 
leader in a movement for State government. In 1835 the pop- 
ulation was found to exceed sixty thousand, and under a claim 
that this, by the Ordinance of 1787, entitled the people to organ- 
ize as a State, a Constitution was formed and adopted by popular 
vote, and a full complement of State officers elected and installed, 
with Mr. Mason as Governor. 

Had there been no opposing interests, it is probable that these 
proceedings, though plainly irregular, would have been sanctioned 
by CJongress and the State received into the Union. But a boundary 
controversy with Ohio involving territory of which the chief value 
centered in the rising town of Toledo, complicated the situation ; 
the military were called out to defend the respective claims, and 
for a time the Toledo war raged. But the war was in prudent 
hands, and though drums were heard not a funeral note brought 



addkp:ss ok hon. tiiomas m. cooley. 83 

sorrow to any household. Ohio had the advantage of position, 
for she was already in the Union with voting power, and I'resi- 
deut Jackson, who could appreciate this, disallowed the claims of 
Michigan to State government and sent John S. Horner on as 
Secretary, to be acting Governor and restore peace. The Secre- 
tary, on coming, found no government awaiting him, and 
people only ridiculed his pretensions. 

There was thus a State government repudiated at Washington 
and a territorial government rejected at home, when Congress 
intervened with the compromise proposition that Michigan in ex- 
change for the Territory in dispute should accept the Upper Pen- 
insula. The ort'er was emphatically rejected, but an irregular 
convention of people having subsequently voted to accept, the 
authorities at Washington pretended to be satisfied with this, 
and declared the State admitted to the Union with its present 
boundaries. It was a piece of sharp practice, and the people pro- 
tested, but even while protesting they acquiesced, satisfied in their 
hearts that for all that was taken from them princely compensation 
was made. And thus the Toledo v^ar came to an end. One 
belligerent had won all it contended for and the other a great deal 
more, and Franklin's aphorism that there never yet was a good 
war, was proved to admit of exception. 

The State was received into the family of the American Union 
on January "IG, \8'-i7. The occasion invites some notice of the 
people as they then were, of their antecedents and characteristics, 
that we may the better judge of the motives underlying and per- 
meating the social and political community. 

The motives which in past ages have led to colonization have 
not commonly been such as strict morality could approve, and in 
history we have many stories of great wrong, and very few in which 
the motive apparent was higher than national ambition or greed. 
The colonization of New England was exceptional, but it has 
been overpraised as if it were a planting of States on the great 
principle of freedom in religious worship. This it was not and 
could not have been ; for the world was not then ready for such a 
planting. What our New England forefathers did was to brave 
the hardships and privations of the wilderness, that they might 
establish civil and religious liberty for themselves; and this was 
noble even though they invited and desired no participation by 
others. 



84 Michigan's semi-oentennial. 

Religious motive in the ordinary sense had nothing to do with 
the colonization of Michigan. The early explorers were mission- 
aries, but the French settlers came for trade and barter, as did 
also those of other nationalities. The later immigrants were for 
the most part men of very limited means, who in their plain way 
would answer an inquiry for their motive in coming west with 
the common response that they had come west to better their 
condition, and in order that their children might "grow up with 
the country." 

The motive as thus stated seems common-place and to a degree 
selfish. We hear it with a certain degree of respect, but we are 
not thrilled by it, or excited to high admiration, as we are when 
we read how some self-sacrificing patrotic or religious motive has 
inspired some great movement or led to notable deeds. But a motive 
may seem common-place and even selfish, and yet be grounded in 
the noblest sentiments of human nature. In the building of great 
States of vigorou.s and wealth-creating people, selfishness comes 
first though philanthropy may come later, and the selfishness is 
blamable only when excessive. The greatest of apostles in his 
pointed condemnation of the man who provides not for his own 
"and specially for those of his own house," has shown us in what 
category he places this duty, and reason, as plainly as the preacher, 
declares that the duty to place those whom nature has committed to 
our care above the want that causes suflTering and breeds repining, is 
not social merely but religious also. In performing it we may lift 
those dependent upon us into that condition of comfort and con- 
tent from which shall spring the sentiment that life is a beneficent 
gift from the Creator, to be acknowledged with continuous grati- 
tude and well doing. 

It can justly be said of the pioneers of the State that they per- 
formed faithfully and well this duty of care for their own ; and in 
doing so they demonstrated the harmony of their aims and their 
labors with the great purposes of the Creator. The foundations 
of a great State were laid in industry, frugality and the domestic 
virtues. 

If we look into the social conditions of the period, we behold 
an exceedingly primitive society, in which wants were few and the 
measure of strict economy ample for their gratification. The 
older towns of the State were still largely French in population. 
Among these were all grades of intelligence and all conditions of 



ADDRESS OK HON. TIIOMAS M. CDOLKY. 85 

worldly prosperity; aud while some took up business in a large 
way and with ample means, others were content with the small 
gains and hard fare of trappers and fishermen. But the majority 
of the people had found their tedious way into the Territory from 
other States, in their heavy tented wagons which then ploughed 
the ruts of every forest road, but are now as much unknown in 
Michigan as the bufiiilo or the beaver. They had come with an 
inspiration as absorbing as that which moved the old crusaders, 
and fiir more intelligent and elevating; an inspiration to seize the 
golden moment when peacefully with their small means they might 
possess themselves of homes where prudence and economy, after 
some discipline of pioneer hardship and deprivation, would be 
sure of just rewards, and where ample means for the nurture and 
education of a hardy and vigorous offspring should be within the 
reach of every industrious citizen. When before in the history of 
the world, in what other country but America, was such tempting 
promise held out for the acceptance of honest industry? 

It was a hard life the pioneers led in the woods, but every acre 
which they brought under cultivation added to the value of their 
possessions, and they could forego without repining many of the ' 
most ordinary comforts of iife when the future promised such 
abundant compensation. It was a hardship for husbands and 
brothers ; but let us be just and admit that for wives and sisters it 
was still harder. Many of them had been reared in competence and 
accustomed to luxuries, but they had left these behind them with- 
out repining, and had brought to the west no notions which would 
preclude their giving effective assistance in any labor, indoors or 
out, to which the feminine strength was equal. And it must be said 
that there were few tasks to which it was found unequal, for the 
willingness to be helpful begot the strength necessary for the pur- 
pose, and the haj)iiiest days of many an honored woman's life were 
when she was piling and burning the brush in her husband's 
clearing, and when the sun went down, refreshing him and her- 
self with supper, from the hriituuing milk-pail which she brought 
from the pasture. If she was a lady in her eastern home, she Mas 
not the less so with rougher hands and coarser garments and 
heavier burdens, but with not less buoyant spirits in the woods 
where only her husband's axe woke the reverberating echoes. She 
wore no diamonds and no laces ; she may have known little and 
cared less for fashions ; but she did lier full siiare in giving to the 



86 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

new State the muscle and the brain, the industry and the strength of 
character that in a few short years were to bring to it both wealth 
and greatness. The song of the spinning-wheel in the log cabin 
was as cheerful then as is now the melody of musical instruments 
in many thousand happy homes which owe their abuudant com- 
forts to the patience, the self-denial, the industry, the energy and 
the endurance of those who first opened the forest to the sunlight. 
The men felled the trees, and the women, "keepers at home," 
made the home worth the keeping. In that day of small things 
it was woman's mission, which woman faithfully performed, to 

" bring to her husband's house delight and abundance, 

Filling it full of love, and the ruddy faces of children." 

But if the pioneers could dispense with many comforts, they 
could spare none of their accustomed institutions. They must, 
therefore, have the common schools, which to their view were a 
necessity to both the social and the civil state. The provision 
for these was on a scale of economy corresponding to that which 
governed domestic expenditures ; and often the child had to 
travel a tedious distance to school, where the instruction awaiting 
him was still more tedious. 

Then, too, these were the semi-barbarous times, when every 
"Master of the district school" was "brisk wielder of the birch 
and rule." But poor as they were, these pioneer schools were 
harbingers of better things ; the rude forerunners of a system not 
surpassed in the world, and seldom equalled. All education must 
be largely a process of self-training, and the child of inquiring 
mind with only the most imperfect help at first, may make all 
things about him, animate and inanimate, his teachers, finding 
" tongues in trees, books in the running brooks " to instruct him. 

In these primitive schools many a boy acquired such elementary 
instruction as enabled him in time to become a man of mark in the 
State ; and they should be mentioned with respect, for places of 
honor and trust, from lowest to highest, have been filled with 
their graduates, who in many cases wielded wisely and well an 
extensive and valuable influence. 

The early settlers in Michigan were for the most part young 
men who first entered upon the stage of independent action in 
their new homes. This was in some respects an advantage to the 
State, for the vigor of youth inspired all industrial and political 



ADDRESS OF IIDN. lH<)>rAS ^[. COOLKY. 87 

life, and made itself ertectively useful where the couservatisni 
which comes in later years might not have ventured. But in the 
confident and restless energy of youth may lurk dangers also ; 
and as these young men contemplated the natural advantages and 
resources of the State, hope told a flattering tale of the rapidity 
with which it might be made great and wealthy by prompt and 
efficient development, and pictured results so alluring and so 
apparently attainable, that sober reason for the time wjvs mas- 
tered. 

General causes greatly magnified the dangers. When the State 
Government was formed an eager spirit of speculation pervaded 
the country. Wild lands seemed to offer the best means for its 
gratification. The Erie Canal had been constructed ; railroad 
building had begun ; the West was thus brought within easy 
reach of the seaboard, and the emigration to it must be large and 
continuous. Land in the West must immediately begin to 
advance in value, and the advance must continue until prices 
should approximate those in the Eastern .States. Such was the 
confident and not unreasonable expectation. Wild lands, there- 
fore, became tlic chief object of speculation, thouuh ])y no means 
the .sole object. 

Some faint idea of the prevailing rage may be had from the 
statement that in 18;>4, fifty per cent, more public land was sold 
than in any prior year ; that three times as much was sold the 
next year, and that tlie (juantity sold in 1836 equalled all the sales 
from 1821 to 18.')3 inclusive. The hurricane of speculation swept 
across the country, but the cyclone struck here. The State was 
easily accessible, and immigration poured over it in such a torrent 
that it seemed like the concerted migration of a great people. In 
the three years foHowing 1834, though the tide was greatlv 
checked in 1837, the population of the State was doubled, and 
lands in enormous (quantities were held for speculation, much of it 
under purchase money mortgages far exceeding actual value. 

Time will not admit of our giving in detail the story of what 
followed ; how to realize the fiattering hopes of speedy wealth, 
the State was induced, under the leadership of its sanguine Gov- 
ernor, to enter upon an extensive system of internal improve- 
ments by canal and railroad when it had not money to dig a 
mile of ditch or build a mile of road ; how for this purpose it 
mortgaged it-^ future by a loan far beyond its al)ility to pay even 



88 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

the interest ; how bonds were issued for this loan and by a breach 
of trust put upon the market when only a moiety of the loan had 
been received ; and how to meet its current expenses and interest 
resort was had to State scrip of doubtful constitutionality. The 
great crash soon came when the bubble of speculation broke. The 
market value of lands went down faster than it had ever gone up ; 
wild lands became unsalable at any price ; debts contracted in 
buying them bankrupted the purchasers, and the overtrading 
which had been a part of the general inflation was succeeded by 
such sharp reaction as made disaster general. In two years from 
the time when speculation was at its highest and expectation 
most buoyant, the business of the State was prostrate ; credit, 
public and private, destroyed, bankruptcy general, and large 
numbers of persons looking about anxiously for the means of sub- 
sistence. Only among the officers of the law who were busy in 
bringing suits and serving writs, was prosperity apparent, and 
they had found their harvest time. 

The bubble had burst, but another which had been inflated at 
the same time to dangerous proportions was now further expanded 
as a means of relief And here we open another chapter in State 
history which can only be mentioned but not entered upon, the 
chapter which concerns that species of financiering appropriately 
termed wild-cat banking ; banking without legitimate banking 
means or convertible security, and therefore only calculated to 
play the part of beast of prey. Enormous amounts of worthless 
paper were issued ; the wild banking and the wild speculating 
going on hand in hand until the latter collapsed, threatening to 
pull down the worthless banking system with it, when the Legisla- 
ture interfered and authorized suspension of bank payments. 
Even then the process of creating banks was not stopped, and the 
extraordinary spectacle was witnessed of banks coming into exis- 
tence in a state of suspension ; born bankrupt and lifeless except 
for plunder. Before the year was over in which the State was 
admitted to the Union it had gone through all the stages of un- 
reasoning speculation ; it had been compelled to refuse recognition 
of State obligations disposed of without consideration received, 
though tlie refusal subjected it to a plausible but unjust chafge of 
repudiation ; it had begun railroads and canals it had no means 
to construct and did not yet need ; and it had legalized a great 
pack of beasts of prey in the form of banks, which had flooded 



ADDRESS OF HON. I'HOMAS M. COOI.KV. 89 

the country with dishonored currency now sinkiug rapidly to 
utter worthlessness. Such was the mortifying result of the 
attempt to find a (flicker and easier road to wealth and greatness 
than by the common highway which industry and frugality open. 
The suffering from the collapse of fictitious prosperity was gen- 
eral, but here, as in all similar cases, losses from bad currency fell 
in largest measure upon persons of limited means, wlio had few- 
est opportunities to kc-ep advist'd of what was coming, or to pro- 
vide against it when it was perceived. 

At the lieginning of 1880 the lowest depth had been reached 
and the golden visions which had daz/led the eyes of the people 
had faded away. State and people alike were opjjrcssed by debt, 
and the public works were unfinished and unprofitable. Nothing 
but a long course of sober and persistent industry with strict 
economy could bring effectual relief. But reason was now res- 
tored ; and it was an inspiriting spectacle to see with what un- 
hesitating confidence the people put the past behind them, and 
beginning at the very bottom, applied themselves to planting in 
steady labor, in frugal living and in honest dealing, the founda- 
tions of public and individual prosperity. 

The errors of Gov. Mason as executive are very patent, but in 
some particulars he is to be highly commended. He was a man 
of public spirit and good purposes, and he had the best inter- 
ests of the State at heart. His judicial appointments, among 
which were those of George Morel 1, Epaphroditus Ransom and 
Elon Farnsworth, wore excellent. And he did an incalculable 
service to the State when he made .John D. Pierce superintendent 
of public instruction, and gave him the assistance he needed in 
putting in force his views upon common school and University 
education. Anil here he had the help of Isaac E. Crary, the first 
representative of the State in Congress, well qualified by culture 
and ability to be a safe adviser. Nor must we forget that it was 
during the administration of Gov. Mason that a geological survey 
of the State was provided for and put in charge of that enthusi- 
astic student of Nature, Douglas Houghton ; a survey which has 
been carried on to this day with most valuable results. The good 
he did, therefore, fully justifies the warm place our boy-governor 
still holds in our hearts. 

The financial crash carried down with it the Democratic party, 
whicii luul been in power when madness ruled the public councils. 



90 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

In the election of 1839 William Woodbridge, a native of Con- 
necticut, was chosen Giovernor. He had been in the Territory 
twenty-five years, and had held the office of territorial secretary, 
delegate in Congress and judge of the territorial Supreme Court, 
which last office President Jackson had taken from him to confer 
upon one of his own supporters. He did not serve out his term 
as Governor, being transferred to the Federal Senate to succeed 
John Norvell, who with Lucius Lyon, had been the first members. 
Mr. Lyon had previously given place to Aug. S. Porter. Lieut.- 
Gov. J. Wright Gordon then became Governor. 

The Democratic party was restored to power by the election of 
1841, with John S. Barry as Governor. Mr. Barry was a native 
of Vermont, who in agricultural and mercantile pursuits had 
acquired a reputation for a prudence not too narrow to be thrifty, 
for methodical business habits and for integrity. He had been 
sufficiently in public life to be known to the people of the State, 
and his characteristics seemed to indicate him as the suitable man 
for executive, at a time when the people were still burdened with 
private and public debts, and when in the management of public 
affairs strict economy and accurate business habits were of the 
first importance. He was not chosen for popular manners, for he 
neither had them nor apparently cared to acquire them, but he 
was nevertheless selected in 1843, and again recalled to the office 
in 1849 after having been four years in retirement. 

The administration of Gov. Barry was eminently useful to the 
State, It gave to the State an illustration of rigid economy and 
careful method in the management of public affairs which deter- 
mined the character of financial management for the State there- 
after. It was of value also for its influence upon private habits 
and expenditures ; and the State and its people from that time 
went on steadily and strongly in the direction of improvement and 
accumulation. The times demanded an executive to whom the 
facile and flattering tongue of the demagogue was denied, but who 
could make austere and uncomprising public virtues acceptable 
to the people ; and Gov. IJarry fully met its requirements. 

In the election of 1845 Alpheus Felch, a native of Maine, still 
with us and worthily associated with State history from the first, 
was made Gov. Barry's successor. Under his administration the 
State relieved itself by sale of the incubus of its railroads. The 
sale was demanded by a public sentiment practically unanimous. 



ADDRESS OF HON. THOMAS M. CdOr.KV. 01 

and it has never been regretted. The State was at once put in 
condition which made payment of its debt easy, and its financial 
credit became unquestioned and un(|uestionable. And now for a 
second time the State lost a good executive by the transfer of the 
Governor to the Federal Senate. William L. Greenly, the Lieut. - 
Governor, succeeded him, giving way in 1848 to Judge Ransom, a 
native of Massachusetts, who had retired from the bench three 
years previously. 

The old pioneers of the State were gratified by the nomination 
of Gov. Cass for the Presidency in 1848, naturally preferring 
him, as they did, to any other candidate of his party. The Gov- 
ernor, after serving in the cabinet of President Jackson, had been 
sent as minister to France, and on his return was elected to a seat 
in the Federal Senate. He resigned his seat pending the Presi- 
dential election, but dissensions in his party proved fatal to his 
prospects, and a man without known political principles was 
elected over him. Gov. Cass was a statesman of the old school ; 
upright, patriotic and decorous ; but Ije was overwhelmed by a 
rising tide of anti-slavery sentiment which he could neither resist 
nor fully understand, and new men, who were ready to grasp with 
aggressive ardor the living issues of the time, soon supplanted 
him in public notice. In this he but shared the fortunes of his 
great contemporaries, Webster, Clay and Benton, who for a time 
struggled vainly to master the logic of events, hoping against hope 
that by new compromises they might preserve the national peace 
and repress a conflict which the laws of mind and of morals made 
irrepressible. 

During the last administration of Gov. Barry the time seemed 
to have come for that peaceful and undisturbing revision of the 
fundamental law which is alwa3's provided for in the American 
Constitutions,and which enables new ideas to assert their supremacy 
without the revolutionary violence that might be a necessary con- 
comitant in some other countries. The period was one of uneasi- 
ness and unrest the world over; the thrones of Europe were 
shaking, and the people, with arms in their hands and behind 
barricades, were demanding the abolition of oppressive special 
privileges, and for themselves a larger share in the government. 
America escaped the calamities of insurrection and civil war, and 
the radical wave which swept across both continents spent its force 
here upon constitutional changes which brought the agencies of 



92 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

government more directly within the reach of the popular voice, 
and made, in some important particulars, a better adjustment of 
individual rights. A notable change in Michigan was the 
requirement that judicial officers and the heads of executive 
departments should be chosen by popular election. In an entire 
revision of the State Constitution, made in 1850, we find checks 
upon over-legislation in the provision for biennial sessions of the 
Legislature, and in the limitations imposed upon the enactment 
of private, special and local laws. Exemptions of property from 
forced sale for debts were largely increased, and married women 
were relieved from the harsh rules of the common law which gave 
their property to their husbands. Very low salaries were pre- 
scribed for all State officers, that of the Governor being one 
thousand dollars only. The possible consequences of corporate 
aggrandisement were aimed at in a provision requiring all corpo- 
rations to be formed under general laws which were to be always 
subject to alteration or repeal. Banking laws must be approved 
by popular vote, -and the State was prohibited from engaging in 
internal improvements, or taking part with or loaning its credit to 
any person, association or corporation. These last are significant 
provisions, born of the great revulsion, but as wise in policy as 
they were noticeable in origin. 

The succession of the executive office fell in 1851 to Robert 
McClelland, for a term shortened to one year in the change of 
constitutions. Gov. McClelland was a native of Pennsylvania, 
but had emigrated to Michigan before it became a State, and had 
served for three terms in the popular branch of 'Congress, where 
he had made for himself a national reputation. He was re-elected 
Governor in 1852, but resigned to become Secretary of the Inte- 
rior, and was succeeded by Lieut.-Governor Andrew Parsons. 
Charles E. Stuart, who had also served with credit in the lower 
house of Congress, was now advanced to the Senate, to fill a 
vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Felch, who had 
accepted a federal apjwintment. 

The great anti-shivory uprising which followed the passage of 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill had the same disrupting efl^ect upon 
political parties in Michigan as elsewhere, and the Free Soil 
party now almost wholly absorbed the Whigs, and had sufficient 
reinforcement from the Democratic party to enable it to take 
control of the State. Kinsley S. Bingham, who had served two 



ADDRESS OF HON. Tll().Mx\> M. t;UOLi;V. 93 

terms in Congress and made a good record, led the Democratic 
contingent into the Free Soil ranks. He was a native of Xcw 
York, a farmer by occupation ; had been in Michigan since 1833, 
and was now elected Governor as the candidate of the new party. 
He was a man of good but not showy abilities; made a good 
record as Governor, and was re-elected in 1856. At the end of 
his second term he was chosen Senator in Congress to succeed 
Charles E. Stuart. Gov. Cass continued in that body until 1857, 
when he became Secretary of State under President Buchanan, 
and was succeeded in the Senate by Zachariah Chandler. Of 
this gentleman it may safely be said that from the time of his 
election to the Senate he was the most notable man of his party 
in the State ; that he soon became prominent in national politics, 
and that his influence with his party associates grew from year to 
year to the day of his death. 

Mr. Chandler was a merchant of Detroit, and like his predeces- 
sor, a native of New Hampshire. He liad strong native sense, 
easily adapted himself to all classes of men and all grades of 
society, was quick in tlecision, fearless in action, uncompromising 
in principle and inflexible in purpose. These are the character- 
istics which make one a natural leader of men ; and Mr. Chan- 
dler by mere force of will commonly carried the doubting and 
hesitating among his associates along with him. He was less 
learned, courtly and poli-shed than his predecessor.; he knew 
much less of literature and history, of foreign countries and our 
relations with them ; but he resembled Gov. Cass in integrity and 
thrift, while in his nature he was far more combative and persist- 
ent. When the time came for the great life and death struggle 
of the nation, no defiance rang out clearer and stronger ; no cour- 
age was less doubtful of results ; no vote was more unhesitatingly 
or more emphatically given for radical measures than were those of 
Zachariah Chandler. For twelve years he spoke the voice of the 
State in the Senate, and on the main questions of the day his 
utterances were never of doubtful import. Gov. Bingham was 
his fitting colleague when the civil war began, but he died in 
1861, and was succeeded by Jacob M. Howard, another man of 
strong and positive qualities, respected alike for his learning, for 
his great natural parts, and for his integrity and fearlessness, who 
immediately took good rank in the Senate, where he commanded 
general respect. 



04 MICHKiAN's SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

Gov. Bingham was succeeded as executive by Moses Wisner, 
and he after two years by Austin Blair. Both these gentlemen 
were natives of New York, and both were inflexible in devotion 
to an undivided country. When war broke out Gov. Wisner 
entered the army at the head of a regiment and great expectations 
followed him to his new field, but he fell a victim to disease 
before there had been opportunity to give proof of military abil- 
ity. His successor is happily still with us, performing with undi- 
minished strength such public duties as are assigned him, and 
therefore with record still incomplete ; but we may safely say of 
his administration that it was made notable by the refusal to join 
in compromising the dignity of the country and the constitutional 
rights of the people in order to win back seceding States, and by 
the vigor and fidelity with which the State, while the war lasted, 
performed all national duties. 

When the war broke out Michigan was found to be loyal to 
the core. All parties as by instinct perceived that a great struggle 
was upon us, which was to put to final test the institutions of our 
fathers, and to determine for all time whether we were henceforth 
to be one of many, under a living constitution, or to be many and 
not one under a disrupted and despised compact. The alterna- 
tive admitted of no hesitation, and reason not less than sentiment 
responded to the summons of the Union, and responded again and 
again as the need increased in urgency. Nor in this did Gov. 
Cass, though fresh from associations which had tainted some others, 
waiver or hesitate. He had lost his youthful fire and vigor when 
the war began, and no doubt felt much of that despondency which 
is a common accompaniment of great age in times of public dan- 
ger and perplexity ; but when he thought the time had come that 
he could no longer serve his country in the cabinet, he withdrew 
to come back to the scenes of his early labors and successes, and 
there with his old neighbors and constituents assembled about 
him, urged firm adherence to the cause of their common country, 
and gave his last public utterance for an indissoluble Union of 
indestructible States. 

The deeds of Michigan's honored sons are resplendent in the 
history of the great civil war. How honorable was the part which 
Israel B. Richai'dson, Alpheus S. Williams, and others like them, 
now gone from among us, took in the great constitutional debate 
when cannon answered cannon in the arirument I And that 



ADDKKrSS OF UVN. TlIOMAte M. CUOLEY. *Jo 

mighty man of war, George A. Custer, a lion in battle and a 
child by the tireside; how the mountain passes of Virginia thun- 
dered beneath the tramp of his horsemen as he hurled them 
upon the enemy, striking never a light or dallying blow, and 
winning never a barren victory. But Custer, too, is laid to rest 

" With all liis country's wishes blest, 
But not until the battle storm had passed away 
With its spent thunders at the break of day." 

Leaving 

" A greener earth and I'airer sky behind, 
Blown crystal-clear by Freedom's northern wind. " 

And what need we say of the four years' trial of the Constitu- 
tion in the civil war V Only this : The bands of Union which 
some feared and many hoped were but withes of straw^ proved 
to be bands of iron, so entwined with the aftections of the people 
as to bid defiance to assaults from any quarter. The idea that with 
many people has been almost a maxim — that it is impossible to 
support republican institutions in large countries, has been shown 
to be utterly baseless. Other nations recognize the cogency of 
the prool's ; in (ircat Britain the monarchy has become little more 
than a name ; France at last seems securely republican, and, 
excepting Russia and Turkey, every nation in Europe has been 
quickened to higher life by American example, and either secured 
representative institutions or perfected such as it had before. 

Proceeding with the regular current of events, the organization 
of an independent Supreme Court a little before the war should 
be mentioned. Of the justices of this court Isaac P. Christiaucy 
and James V. Campbell remained long enough on the bench to 
make for themselves great names in legal circles, as did also 
Benjamin F. Graves, who in 1868 became their fitting associate. 

The successor of Gov. Blair was Henry H. Crape, a native of 
Massachusetts, who was recommended to the people by his emi- 
nent business ability which had been exhibited in many different 
vocations and with unvarying success. He was once re-elected, 
and is remembered as an able, careful and prudent executive. 
During his term the fever of voting municipal aiil to railroads was 
afHicting the country, and he strove, but without success, to stay 
its progress in this State. This method of making use of munici- 
pal credit and resources was, however, brouglil to astop by a 



96 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

decision of the Supreme Court before the evils had become very 
serious. 

The successor of Gov. Crapo was Heury P. Baldwin, a native 
of Khode Island, who for many years had been extensively engaged 
in business in Detroit as merchant, manufacturer and banker, and 
had won an enviable reputation for ability, integrity and liberality. 
He held the office for two terms, retiring at the beginning of 1873. 
Succeeding him for two terras was John J. Bagley, a native of 
New York. In him the State had for executive, one of those 
strong and vigorous characters who, by their native sense, business 
tact and ability, and promptitude in the performance of duty, do 
honor to the commonwealth with which they unite their fortunes. 
Many such have made their homes in Michigan, but none more 
worthy of honorable mention than John J. Bagley. He began 
life without means, and with but slight educational advantages, 
but he was full of energy and was prosperous in business from the 
first, his stores of useful information kept pace with his other 
acquisitions, so that when he was called to the office of Governor, 
his fitness for the place was universally recognized, and his admin- 
istration was able, popular and wise. He was a man of large 
heart and of strong domestic and social ties; he was proud of his 
State and city, and he felt every inch the Governor when he had 
occasion to be their representative abroad, and to speak as he 
delighted to do, in their praise. 

The gentlemen who have held the office of Governor since the 
time of Gov. Bagley are fortunately all still among us, and we 
meet them in social and business circles where their ability and 
worth make them prominent and respected. Charles M. Croswell 
held the office from 1877 to 1881 ; David II. Jerome, from 1881 
to 1888; Josiah W. Begole, from 1883 to 1885, and the latter 
then gave place to Russell A. Alger, who as the present executive 
has so worthily addressed assembled thousands to-day. Each of 
these gentlemen as a private citizen was known and respected for 
the energy, prudence and success with which he managed his own 
business interests, and the people expected from each an administra- 
tion of public aftairs which should be prudent, conscientious and 
watchful, and in no instance were the expectations disappointed. 
Governors' Croswell and Begole were natives of New York, and 
Gov. Alger, of Ohio. To Gov. Jerome belongs the proud distinction 
of being the first Governor of Michigan, who was born within its 



AI)nKP:SS OK HON. THOMAS M. COOLKV. 1)7 

limits ; the true representative of those who wore reared among 
its stumps and taught in its district schools. Good rearing and 
good teaching that must have beeu that gave a pioduct so sturdy, 
vigorous and self-reliant; so well calculated by energy and persist- 
ence to hew an open road to public respect and to fortune. 

The succession in the Federal Senate was ke])t uj) by the election 
of Thomas W. Ferry to succeed Jacob M. Howard in 1871, and 
and of Isaac P. Christiancy to succeed Zachariah Chandler in 1875. 
Judge Christiancy did not serve out his term, but resigned to accept 
the appointment of l\Iinist(ir to ]*eru, and Henry P. Baldwin suc- 
ceeded him for a time under executive appointment until the elec- 
tion by the Legislature of Omar D, Conger, who is still in office. 
Ferry was once re-elected, and was succeeded by Thomas W. 
Palmer in L^S3. All these gentlemen are still with us, and still 
making history, and we leave, them to the future chronicler. 

Of the men who served the State faithfully in the lower house 
of Congress and whose records have been sealed by death, a few 
have already been mentioned. It would be pleasing if time per- 
mitted to name all the others in succession ; but the list is long, 
and at best we could only pass through it, and place a laurel here 
and there upon a worthy brow. And among the worthy was 
William A. Howard, a man of strong and positive qualities, who 
represented the First district from 1855 to 1861. He took high 
rank in Congress and had a place on most important committees. 
One of these was the special committee created for the investigation 
of the inroads into Kansas by armed bands from the border States. 
The country was then excited beyond all former precedent by 
what seemed to be the approaching culmination of the struggle 
over slavery, and already from State to State leaped the live 
thunder of the coming tempest. The committee in an elaborate 
report put plainly before the people a nuiss of startling facts, con- 
stituting one of the most important historical documents of the 
period. Mr. Howard was also one of the committee of thirty-three 
appointed to consider and report upon the subject of further 
national compromises ; but his principles forbade his assenting to 
take even the shortest step backward, and he {)erformed effective 
service in defeating the purpose for which the committee was 
created. Men doubted at the time whether this was best, but few 
doubt now. 

Another worthy name is that of Fernando C. Beamau, who 
7 



98 MI('HIGA>f's 5?KMI-CENTENNIAL. 

entered Congress in 1861, and bad the rare fortune, unequalled 
in the State except in the cases of Jay A, Hubbell and Omar D. 
Conger, of serving for five successive terms. He was a modest 
man, and became less prominent in Congress than many others 
who were neither so able nor so useful. Fidelity to duty was to 
him the mainspring of public action ; and when he was offered the 
appointment of Senator on the resignation of Senator Christiancy, 
he declined, because his health was then failing, and he could not 
in conscience accept an office to whose responsibilities he felt him- 
self physically inadequate. Charles Upson, also, who served for 
three terms, beginning in 1863, was a man of ability and sterling 
worth, and the career of a frank, manly, upright, honorable and 
useful citizen was closed when he passed away, having served the 
State in many important offices. 

It is pleasing also, as we pass along, to note some federal ap- 
pointments made in evident recognition of the truth that the office 
should seek the man and not the man the office. Such was the 
appointment of President Angell of the University to conduct an 
important and delicate negotiation with China ; a deserved com- 
pliment to the profession of which he is so distinguished a mem- 
ber, and which in China i.s particularly respected and esteemed. 
It was a graceful return whicli the Flowery Kingdom made to the 
State when it bestowed upon the University its excellent display 
of Chinese productions which at New Orleans had excited so 
greatly the interest of all visitors. And eminently worthy also 
was the selection of Geo. V. N. Lothrop, the distinguished leader 
of the bar of the State, for the important post of Minister to 
Russia. When the national executive so emphatically makes 
fitness the test in his selections the people are not likely to over- 
look or even in thought to underrate the fundamental maxim that 
public office is a public trust. 

But while thus mentioning a few of the many worthy men who 
have filled with credit important offices, we are reminded con- 
tinually that many of the most notable and useful of the citizens 
of the State have seldom or never held public office. They have 
been active and served the public well in their several callings 
and set worthy examples ; but for various reasons not personally 
discreditable have lived and died private citizens. They may not 
be less entitled to public honor for that reason. The best of 
worth is not in holding office, but in showing by an intelligent 



ADDRESS OF HON. TIluMAh M. (JOOLEV. 99 

j)erfbriiiance (jf duty everywhere a fitness to hold it. A State's 
choicest possessions are its men of broad and vigorous minds, pure 
character, and noble aspirations, whether they serve the public in 
high station or low, as cultivators of the soil, in the profession or 
in handicraft employments. Such men inspire and elevate all who 
come withiu the sphere of their influence; they give the State 
respect and standing abroad ; they strengthen it in the esteem 
and regard of the whole body of its people, and they create among 
its youth an emulation in excellence which is better for them and 
for the State than any reaching after mere personal distinction of 
wealth or oflBce. Nor does the public spirited citizen fail to find 
that in private life he is charged with public duties which in their 
performance may be made of the highest utility ; and while he 
performs these faithfully, he knows he stands not merely at the 
post of duty but at the post of honor. The trappings of office 
are mere tinsel, but commanding worth, as Emerson has so well 
said, " must sit crowned in all companies." 

Thus, in the c )mpass of an hour; have we attempted to sum- 
marise the leading events in State history. As thus presented 
the history seems tame and commonplace as compared with what 
during the same ])eriod has been takinsj^ place in other countries. 
No battle has been fought on our soil, no violent revolution has 
occurred in government, the steady pulse of industry has not been 
disturbed by the near approach of any alarming danger. There 
have been local calamities and disorders, but not once in all the 
period of State existence has anything occurred so strange and 
remarkable as to fix upon it the anxious eyes of the world. But 
yet — and largely because of this very fact — how mighty have been 
the changes! The State which fifty years ago was knocking at 
the door of the Union for the favor of admission, now numbers a 
population equal to that of all the American colonies at the time 
they first set British power at defiance in refusing to yield obedi- 
ence to the Stamp Act. In fifty years the State has added to its 
population as much as the continent did in the first hundred and 
fifty years of colonization, and its growth in material wealth has 
been still more wonderful. This single fact is far more striking 
and significant and far more worthy the attention of statesman 
and historian than could |)0ssibly be the greatest of battles and 
the most brilliant of victories upon which nothing was depending 
but the gratification of individual or national ambition. Nor will 

LOfC, 



1(jO Michigan's semi-centennial. 

the character of the population acquired suffer in comparison with 
that of any other country on the globe. The population is mixed 
as to nationality, with the Puritan blood predominating, but it is 
sufficiently homogeneous for all important purposes of the social 
state and of government. British America is largely and usefully 
represented, the Germans are planted on all sides, making intelli- 
gence and enterprise productive ; all parts of the British Islands 
have furnished contingents, as has Holland also, and other Euro- 
pean countries, but disturbing elements are few, and order, industry 
and thrift are everywhere. The educational system which the 
State so early established and so wisely nourished receives cordial 
support from adopted citizens, and it grows and prospers steadily 
and strongly, having, like the gentle showers of heaven, blessings 
for all. Rarely, in either public or social concerns, does nation- 
ality of birth determine the action of the individual. To the 
sober, industrious citizen of foreign birth, whether born in Briti-sh 
ligeance, or in Scandinavia, or beyond the Rhine, or in that 
small country of great renown 

" Where the broad ocean leans against the laud," 

the home of nativity may always remain the home of sentiment, 
but the country of adoption will not for that reason be the less 
cherished ; and coiwmon interests, common pursuits, common enjoy- 
ments and common aims and purposes must rapidly obliterate 
distinctions, leaving all proud that of right they are entitled in 
this beautiful an<l thrifty State to share the priceless benefits of 
American institutions. 

And we may well take pride in our State, whether we contem- 
plate it simply in its grand results, or examine it in comparison 
with other States. In the main its record is a clean one, bearing 
upon it few marks we should care to erase. After passing over 
the brief spendthrift days of its youth, we have only the unexcit- 
ing story of how energy, enterprise, prudence and thrift may 
quietly and without the notice of the world build up a mighty 
State, with all the elements of strength and every promise of 
enduring prosperity. And were we to go back of the record to 
show who those were who were most active, efficient and able 
in State building, it would appear that for the most part they 
were men who began empty-handed but strong-hearted, and by 
mental and piiysical energy and force of character made for them- 
selves a name while helping the State to greatness. 



ADDKKSS or' HON. THOMAS M. COOLEY. lOl" 

-Michigan was the twenty-sixth State to take its phice in the 
American Union, hut it lias been advancing steadily and with 
strong and even pace to the front, and to-day only eight are lead- 
ing it in population and wealtii. And while Michigan has been 
overtaking and passing so many of the older States, not one, new 
or old, has overtaken and securely held a position in advance of 
Michigan. Of the original thirteen, only New York, Pennsylvania 
and Massachusetts have now more people, and in a little time 
the proud old Bay State must content itself with a lower place. 
What more can be said in praise of the State than that it has 
more than kept pace with the astounding growth of the country, 
and more than ke})t good the wonderful promise of its earliest 
years? Justly and with the emphasis of proud satisfaction may 
its citizens exclaim as they welcome the stranger to our hospita- 
ble board to-day: Si qweris ammnavi peninsula in, circumspice. Its 
beauties, its riches, its attractions are everywhere. But not in its 
growth, in its wealth, in its beauty, in its numbers, does the 
State chiefly pride itself as its reli^ous and charitable institutions 
and its complete system of public education, and what the people 
have done and are doing through these and by these must suffi- 
ciently attest. First and foremost the aim of the State has 
always been to prepare its youth to act well their part in the 
great drama of life, and in the incidental trials and rivalries. If 
that aim is accomplished, the State may well be content, for mate- 
rial success will abundantly follow. TTowever rich and diversilied 
are the bounties of nature, " man is the n()l)ler growth our realms 
supply," and the strength of the State must always be in the man- 
hood of its people, who, if worthily trained, will make their own 
success in their chosen walks in life the glory of the common- 
wealth. 



Mk. Ciiami;i:ui>ain : 

There are present here to-day, a large number of persons whose 
forms are bent, and whose heads have become white ; the pioneers 
of Michigan. Few of us can be expected to live in our loved 
Michigan many years longer ; but there are many here who may 
hope to see the centennial year of the State of Michigan. If such 
there are, and they join in the celebration, they will not, as we do 
to-day, hear addresses delivered by one who has been a Chief 



102 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Justice, and one who now fills that office, both eminent as judges ; 
who have both written and published valuable histories of Miohi- 
igan. I think no one will enjoy such a privilege again. 
I present to you Chief Justice James V. Campbell. 

JUDICIAL HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 

Hon. JAMES V. CAMPBELL. 

In the old world, and in most parts of the new, the judicial 
system and the matters with which it deals will be found to have 
been naturally developed from a historic past. The direct bear- 
ing of jurisprudence on the general progress and welfare, and the 
fact that its action is continuously recorded and kept in sight, 
render it a visible test and measure of public movement. No 
other records are so significant. In all civilized countries the 
rights and duties of citizens-in-law are substantially in accordance 
with usage and common understanding. Private and public action 
is continually brought to trial, and very few principles can be long 
lost sight of, or departed from, without quick detection. The his- 
tory of law is the history of the Commonwealth. 

But in this State of Michigan, whose corporate life has lasted 
but two score years and ten, so that many of us have seen and 
known it all, we do not look back to a long historic development. 
Our people, as their numbers have multiplied, are kindred in blood 
and ways to our neighbors in other States of this Union, and such 
adopted citizens as we have among us have also their counter-parts 
elsewhere. But looking back to our American antecedents, we 
find that the founders of this community did not come from Great 
Britain or any part of its dominions, and when the wilderness was 
first explored it was by another race, neighbors geographically, 
and long ago in part of common ancestry, but in the days when 
America was first colonized very far apart in all that determines 
the characters of commonwealths. The Norman stock that fur- 
nished the enterprising and uneasy blood that set men on both 
sides of the channel upon voyages and distant adventures had 
been losing political kinship ever since the Conquest. Equal in 
courage and personal enterprise, these neighboring peoples had 
drifted very far asunder in their habits of municipal conduct. 

In Normandy there were frequent and fierce outbursts of popular 
hatred against centralized tyranny, but the tyranny remained. In 



ADDRESS OF HON. .lAMES V. CAMPBKLL. 103 

England the decisive triumph had been gained long since, and 
before the law, although the law was sometimes broken, there was 
general as well as personal freedom. When the British colonies 
were first settled the colonists were all English. There was no 
parliament of Great Britain and no legislative union of the island. 
They came over, bringing with them the permanent privileges of 
the common law of England, l)ut leaving behind them a large part 
of its accidents and rules not fundamental. In those things which 
were not essential the different companies of adventurers, who were 
largely from cities, very generally adliered to their local usages, 
which were often far in advance of the common law of the rural 
parts of England, and much better suited to growing communities. 
Their laud tenures, their recording laws, and many flexible and 
sensible business usages, came chiefly from the free cities, and not 
from the great lordships and manors. 

In France, at that time, there was a much greater diversity of 
customs than in England. What remnant of popular freedom 
still survived was chiefly in the chartered municipalities which, 
like the cities of England, were always tenacious of such rights as 
they possessed. The southern part of the kingdom was known as 
the country of written law, and its towns and dependencies held 
on to the Roman law substantially as it was when they were 
Roman colonies, and before it became so thoroughly despotic in 
form as it came from the moulding of Justinian. The rest of the 
realm followed the customs developed from the various distinct 
races that had possessed its different regions, and the cities and 
communities of the north of France resembled in many ways 
their kindred in England. But throughout the entire territory 
of France there were certain rules in common, and these were 
chiefly feudal. And there were ordinances in force everywhere of 
royal origin. 

There was no great charter to limit, and no free parlinient to 
clieck the encroachments of prerogative, and the customs them- 
selves, instead of being in force of common right, were held at the 
king's sufferance, so that this great variety was no sign of free- 
dom. And when the French adventurers began their settlements 
in Acadia and Canada, followed not long after by the various 
New England and more southern English settlers, the two nation- 
alities dirtered in the vital element of self-government. The 
Englishmen differed in their usages because they managed their 



104 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

own affairs in their own way, so that actual uniformity was made 
impossible by the necessary variations of free agency. Their French 
neighbors had only such freedom of conduct as a monarch, jealous 
of his regalities, found it necessary to wink at in order to keep 
proud and spirited men from rebellion. But experience shows 
that liberty is only pi-eserved by the actual conduct of affairs, and 
without that experience individual intelligence is powerless. 

It waa not the policy of the French authorities to extend civil 
settlements. West of Montreal there were but a few detached 
military posts, and those were not centres of population. In 
what is now Michigan, Michilimackinac and St. Joseph were the 
first military stations, and the former was the principal post. 
Some others were transient. No French people were allowed to 
become fixed residents of either. Detroit was the first, and during 
the French dominion the only, post intended to become a town, 
unless the seigneurie of SaultSte Marie, granted in the latter days 
of that rule, can be classed with it. Detroit was established after 
a fierce contest with powerful adversaries, who were opposed to 
any new settlements as likely to cut off* some of their profits from 
the western fur trade. As it was meant to have all essential 
advantages, and as courts of justice of some kind would seem 
necessary, we are led to consider what provision was made in that 
direction. Trade and mechanic arts came at once into existence 
in the town, and in a short time farms were granted and tilled and 
some industries were started. 

Theoretically at that time the establishment of courts of original 
jurisdiction was one of the rights, if not one of the duties of feudal 
land-holders. In all the grants of seigucuries some power of this 
kind was given, and in a large portion of them it included jurisdic- 
tion over all subjects, civil and criminal, except a few political 
offences. The royal tribunals reserved chiefly appellate jurisdiction. 
But it is stated by the Canadian historians that there were economi- 
cal reasons which led most of the seigneurs to abstain from setting 
up courts, and the people preferred to have their differences settled 
by some kind of arbitrators. Practically the only courts were 
created by the appointment of judges or commissaries by the Colon- 
ial authorities. The lutendant appears to have been at the head of 
the ordinary judicial system, and his delegates were probably the 
principal local judges, where they happened to be sent. In order 
to avoid confusion, the custom of the Prevote and Vicomte of 



ADDRESS OF HON. .lAMES V. CAMPBELI-. 105 

Paris was adopted by the Crown as the rule of civil conduct, 
including contracts and estates. This was regarded among the 
writers on Customary Law as of" \\'\<A\ authority in construing 
doubtful questions, and by some it has been said — although ques- 
tionably — that it might be looked to where other customs were 
silent. It was not confined to urban matters, although the anti- 
quity of Paris made its usages valuable. The field of its jurisdiction 
included originally considerable territory, rural and agricultural, 
and it covered all sorts of interests. It was chiefly important here 
in fixing the amounts due for various charges on lands, multure 
and other feudal and proprietary dues, and the method of passing 
contracts and estates. 

There is no record that has yet come to light which shows the 
early existence of any court in Detroit. There are several docu- 
ments indicating for what purposes money was applied in public 
expenses, but none cover judicial charges. In the various acts of 
baptism, marriage, burial and the like, recorded in the parish 
books of Ste. Anne's church, which gX) back to ITOo, the titles of 
all notables are carefully set out, but tliere is no sign of any civil 
magistrate residing in this region until Robert Navarre, Royal 
Notary and Sub-delegate of the Intendant. w'lio came about 1730. 

There is no reason to doubt that the Commandant for the time 
being exercised all powers necessary to enforce justice, either on 
the spot or by arresting and sending forward culprits to the lower 
Colony. In civil matters there could usually be very little occa- 
sion to litigate. There was generally some one acting as notary 
or performing analogous functions, whose action, although not 
judicial, was at least auxiliary. All land transactions, testamen- 
tary and estate matters, and many contracts, were had liefore 
notaries or persons acting in their stead, in so careful and perma- 
nent a way that there was no room for dispute about them. The 
functions were not entrusted to any but suitable persons, and all 
acts were publicly witnessed by witnesses of recognized standing. 

From 1722, when Cadillac's rights were finally adjusted and 
surrendered, the Colonial Government seems to have taken more 
active charge than before, and endeavored to settle the claims of 
all private land-holders. In 1734 the previous grants were con- 
firmed by new ones issuing directly from the royal authorities, 
and there are more obvious signs of regular government. Mr. 
Navarre, in his double character of Royal Notary and Sub-dele- 



106 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

gate of the Intendant, was no doubt able to perform the judicial 
work required. But we have very little light on the subject, as 
the records have disappeared. It appears, however, that besides 
Mr. Navarre, there were some other gentlemen who must have 
held some kind of judicial office. Pierre St. Cosme is spoken of 
in the Pontiac Diary as former Judge, succeeded by Mr. LeGrand, 
and in documents much later 8t. Cosme is described in the same 
way, indicating that his office must have been of some importance. 
Both he and LeGrand were gentlemen of high social standing. 
There were several notaries. 

After the English rule had been made permanent by the Treaty 
of 1763, justices of the peace were appointed quite early. They 
had not, however, any power to try cases great or small, and only 
acted as examining magistrates. The official correspondence con- 
tains many references to the lamentable want of tribunals capable 
of trying causes and redressing wrongs. The whole of Canada, 
except the lower Province, was intentionally exempted from any 
regular government, and was, until just before the American 
Revolution, not even nominally under civil rule. Such courts as 
were created were provisional and given a very limited jurisdic- 
tion. The local commander had the supreme local power, and 
frequently acted as judge and magistrate. The merchants formed 
arbitration boards of their own, which, while it lasted, disposed of 
all their mutual complaints. Generally all criminals charged 
with serious offences were sent below for trial, as was done with 
several American sympathisers during the Revolution ; and while 
there were some cases in which extreme punishment was inflicted 
in Detroit, there is no question but that it was illegal. There are 
references in public documents showing that judges were appointed 
by the Colonial authorities for this region, but none ever came, so 
far as is known. Capital punishment was inflicted in three cases 
under sentences of Philip De Jean, a justice of the peace, who 
held also one of the provisional appointments for trying small 
civil cases. He left Detroit when Gov. Hamilton went on his 
unlucky expedition to Kaskaskia and Vincennes and was cap- 
tured with that officer and held in close custody by the Virginia 
authorities for alleged inhumanity in the war. An indict- 
ment had been found against him below for the murder of the 
persons he had caused to be executed, and he was afraid to go 
beyond Hamilton's protection. The sale of his Detroit property 



ADDRESS OF HON. JAMES V. CAMPBELL. 107 

on the eve of liis departure indicated that he did not mean to 
return. Several years after the Kevolution it was recited in 
articles of apprenticeship of his son, a lad who was an infant 
when he left, that he had not returned since his tleparture in 
1778. 

The celebrated Quebec Act of 1774, which attached all the 
French cession north of the River Ohio to the Province of Quebec, 
declared that the custom of Paris should continue to prevail in 
civil matters and the English Law in criminal matters. But that 
act made no provision for the immediate organization of justice 
in the western ])osts, and nothing etieotual was done to provide for 
it until 17b8, five years after the close of the Revolution. At that 
time English speaking settlers had established themselves in several 
places in what is now Ontario, and their numbers were such as to 
require local organization. The Governor-General therefore divided 
this region into Districts, and as Detroit had been retained within 
British, possession and the British authorities meant to keej) it if 
they could, it was not only included within the district of Hesse, 
but made the seat of justice. William Dummer Powell was the 
first judge who presided over tliis court, and afterwards was the 
Chief Justice of Upper Canada. From this time on the courts 
sat regularly for all purposes and business was done in the ordin- 
ary course. Besides the District Courts, there were courts of com- 
mon pleas and (juarter sessions. The common pleas judges were 
all respectable lawyers, and the court was held in high esteem. 
Louis Beaufait was the first chief judge, and James May, Patrick 
IMcNiff, Charles Girardin and Nathaniel Williams were associates. 
All were ohl citizens familiar with French and English and allied 
by marriage or blood with the French inhabitants. 

Immediately after the establishment of Upper Canada into a 
sej)arate province, the name of the district was changed to the 
Western District, and Detroit was as before made the seat of 
justice, although a court was also appointed to be held at Michili- 
mackinac. Things continuedint his shape until .June, 179(3, the 
time provided for Jay's Treaty to become operative, when the 
British courts were removed to the other side of the river. Detroit 
was surrendered July 11, 1796. 

Then for the first time the country came under the control of 
American institutions. Michigan formed a part of the Territory 
northwest of the Ohio, set apart under the celebrated ordinance 



108 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

of 1787. By that ordinance, until the population became large 
enough to have a Legislature, the Governor and three Judges, all 
appointed by the President and Senate, were made a Legislative 
Board to adopt laws from the statutes of the various States as far 
as applicable. In selecting those laws attention was paid to sub- 
tance rather than form, and parts of the statutes were amalga- 
mated into new ones. Although this led to some criticism, it was 
within the spirit of the ordinance, and as Congress never disap- 
proved of any territorial laws on that ground, and no court has 
ever held such action invalid for that reason, the practical con- 
struction of the powers of the Board has been in favor of their 
action. 

The territorial authorities at once created a county, known as 
Wayne County, which included Northern Ohio, Indiana and 
Illinois and all of Michigan and Eastern Wisconsin, which con- 
tained settlements. The judicial system of the Northwest Terri- 
tory became operative, and included the Supreme Court, Common 
Pleas, Probate and Orphans' Courts, and Quarter Sessions. 
Annual sessions of the Supreme Court were held at Detroit by 
one of the Territorial Judges. The Common Pleas Court and 
Quarter Sessions continued substantially as before, and with the 
same judges and justices, who also performed probate duties. 
Under all of the territorial systems, until the latter days of the 
Territory, all local officers were appointed by the Governor. 

For several years population increased slowly. The earliest 
settlers included two lawyers, who became influential. Solomon 
Sibley and Elijah Brush were the earliest members of the Bar 
who came to Detroit. Both came directly from Ohio. Judge 
Sibley came from Marietta, where he had gone to join that settle- 
ment with several eminent soldiers of the Revolution, his wife, 
whom he married after moving to Detroit, being a daughter of 
Col. Ebenezer Sproat, and a granddaughter of Commodore Abra- 
ham Whipple, the first American who obtained naval success 
over British ships. Judge Sibley 'filled several public offices, 
having been elected a delegate to the Legislature of the North- 
west Territory in 1799, and afterwards appointed to the Council. 
He was twice elected a delegate to Congress, and filled the office 
of Judge of the Supreme Court during the latter years of the Ter- 
ritory, He was one of the wisest and ablest men that ever lived 
in Michiiran. 



AUDKEtJS UK HUN. .lAMES V. CAMrUEFJ.. l09 

Col. Brush was Territorial Attorney General and Colonel of 
one of the regiments surrendered by Hull in 1812, and was one 
of the officers who proposed to deprive him of his command 
before he gave up the post. Col. Brush was banished by Gen. 
Proctor for remonstrating against his violation of the terms of the 
surrender, and returned with (tcu. Harrison's army, but died 
shortly after the re-occupation. 

The experience under the Northwest Territory was too short to 
leave any traces. In 1802 Michigan was made part of Indiana, 
with no material change of legislation. Only one term of the 
Supreme Court of that Territory was held in Detroit. In the 
early part of 1805, the Territory of IMichigan was organized 
under a counterpart of the Ordinance of 1787, and for the first 
time we find a course of civil administration that left its mark on 
our subsequent career. 

The Ordinance of 1787, having been made the basis of the ter- 
ritorial government, its legislature was in tlie fir.>t instance com- 
posed of the Governor and Judges, who selected and adapted laws 
from other States, and by degrees made up as full a code as the 
necessities of the people required. 

It had always been a matter of tlifHculty to decide just when or 
how the legal and judicial system of Michigan became in accord- 
ance with the principles of the common law of England, instead 
of retaining some ))ortion of the French law. No absolute answer 
can be given to this intjuiry, but the reason why this cannot be 
given is because the change was not abrupt but gradual. The 
chief interests of the French people, especially after the English 
conquest, were connected with their landed estates. The best 
mechanics were French, down to a modern period, but questions 
arising out of their business were seldom litigated. After the 
English possession most of the active business was in the hands 
of traders who came from New York or ]\[ontreal, and whose 
antecedents were British. The currency recognized in tliis region 
was New York currency, of two dollars and a half to the pound 
of twenty shillings, and i)rices were fixed in accordance with those 
divisions until quite recently- The common-law rules of negotia- 
ble paper came in with the traders, and the British government 
business was all carried on upon a similar basis. The great bulk 
of litigation involved commercial matters, and so far as personal 
rights or crimes called for judicial action they were always after 



110 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

1763 decided by English law. The French methods of dealing 
with lands had become quite analogous to our own. Although 
their transactions were had before notaries, it was very common, 
and latterly universal, to have the original deed (acte in brevet, 
i. e. letters overt), signed by parties, witnesses and notary, either 
executed in duplicate, or delivered to the grantee. English offi- 
cials naturally found it easier to conform to their own familiar 
methods. The Euglisli courts, when organized, adopted all the 
common-law officers and formalities. When Upper Canada was 
established the English law was formally recognized, and although 
the British occupation after the treaty of peace is only regarded 
by our jurisprudence as provisional, and the statutes passed 
between the Revolution and our possession were not considered 
binding on the Territory, nevertheless acts done under them have 
been held valid, and the usages which grew up rendered it much 
easier to go on in the same way than to attempt theoretical 
changes. The Ordinance of 1787 itself created rules of inherit- 
ance, and laws for making and recording deeds and wills ; and 
while saving their old usages to the settlers at Kaskaskia, Vin- 
cennes, and other places which had come within the actual con- 
trol of Virginia, no such exemption was made as to any part of 
Michigan. The courts had their jurisdiction directly measured 
by the common law. Habeas corpus, trial by jury, and judicial 
proceedings according to the course of the common law, were made 
perpetual rights under the six articles of compact. The power 
of the Governor and Judges to select statutes was confined to the 
American States, all of which followed the common law. 

It is safe to say, therefore, that when Michigan became a Ter- 
ritory, it was already in all essential features a common-law 
region. The courts assumed it, and that assumption has been 
continued and universal. The traditions indicate that while some 
of the ancient inhabitants now and then sighed for the old ways 
of justice, it was not for the jurisdiction of French tribunals act- 
ing under the custom of Paris, but for the arbitrary and summary 
procedure of the commanding officers, who applied military 
methods to the enforcement of contracts and the redress of 
wrongs, with more respect to natural justice than to law. It took 
the French inhabitants a long time to understand what they called 
Yankee ways, although they had no great love for Great Britain, 

The want of knowledge concerning the precise condition of the 



ADDRESS OK HON. .lAMKS \ . OAMlTiKLf,. Ill 

French and English hind titles led to the judicious deterniinatiou 
of Congress to require nil claims to be brought forward before 
commissioners, and to contirni not merely perfect j)aper titles, but 
all rights manifested by possession. Having in this way provided 
for muniments of title derived in all cases from the United States, 
the courts were delivered from inquiring into feudal and unfamiliar 
rules and burdens, and all estates became complete allodial titles. 
To complete the work the Governor and Judges put an end to any 
further groping in the dark by formally repealing all remnants 
of the French law, and of the outside legislation by England, 
Canada, or the Northwest and Indiana Territories. This left no 
statutes in force but acts of Congress and of Michigan Territory. 

The Supreme Court was the only one directly created by the 
territorial Organic Law, The laws adopted by the Governor 
and Judges gave to justices of the peace power to try small civil 
cases and to District Courts general jurisdiction up to $200, after- 
wards enlarged to -^500, with appellate authority in the Supreme 
Court which had the remaining jurisdiction at law and in equity. 
Probate and other proceedings outside of the ordinary judicial 
power were also transacted in the general courts till Probate 
Courts were created. The Territory was not divided into counties 
and townships until (piite late in its history. Four districts were 
created, Erie, Detroit, Huron and Michilimackinac, and courts 
held which were at Hrst presided over by a Judge of the Territory, 
and afterwards by lay judges, a chief and two associates. There 
were no elected ofticers, and no small territorial divisions except 
highway districts. All process originally issued to the Territorial 
Marshals. Except at Mackinaw, all the settlements were along 
the water from the St. Clair River to Ohio. As the whole terri- 
tory fell within the old County of Wayne, that necessarily became 
dormant, and in process of time its rights in action were vested in 
the Territory. In 1810 the District Courts were abolished and 
their jurisdiction divided between the Supreme Court and justices 
of the peace. 

This condition continued until after the war, and no steps 
were taken during Governor Hull's administration to bring about 
any local self-government. Detroit was incorporated before the 
creation of Michigan Territory. Michilimackinac, the next 
borough organized, was established as a borough in 1817. Detroit 
was made a citv in 180(). In 1S09 an itmiiihus-repealiug statute 



112 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

apparently included the charter, but whether lawfully or not is 
doubtful. By an act of 1810 all of the acts of the Governor and 
Judges passed between June 2, 1807, and September 10, 1810, 
were repealed, as well as the Indiana and Northwest Territorial 
laws. In 1815 a new charter was given to Detroit, and the old 
repealing laws, so far as they were supposed to affect its original 
corporate existence, were themselves repealed. There is some 
mystery about all this legislation and counter legislation. The 
city seems to have continued throughout to act as such, and it had 
been recognized and provided for by act of Congress as the seat of 
government, and special Congressional interference led to having 
it laid out anew after its destruction in 1805. The conflicting 
action of the governing board can only be accounted for as a part 
of that disgraceful bickering which induced each faction, when in 
a majority, to undo the work of its adversaries. 

The personal character and antecedents of the early territorial 
judges have been made so familiar by many writers that none but 
a brief sketch would be justifiable. 

The first appointments made were confirmed March 1, 1805, 
and included Samuel Huntington of Ohio, Frederick Bates of 
Michigan, and Augustus Brevoort Woodward of the District of 
Columbia. The act of Congress made no pi'ovision concerning 
precedence, but the territorial board enacted that the judge hav- 
ing the earliest commission should always preside. Judge Hun- 
tington did not accept the appointment. On the 23d of December 
JohnGrifiin, one of the judges of Indiana was, at his own request, 
as stated by Mr. Jefferson, nominated as judge. The Senate seem 
to have found some difficulty in agreeing to the confirmation as 
it was considered and postponed several times, but he was at last 
confirmed March 29, 180G. 

Although Judge Bates was named before him in the appoint- 
ment and confirmation of the territorial judges, Judge Woodward 
assumed to act as Chief Justice, but how his precedence was 
obtained does not appear. Possibly his commission may have 
issued first. Judge Griffin and Judge AVoodward made common 
cause from the first, and Judge Griffin quarreled with Judge Bates 
so that the latter resigned his office, and was subsequently made 
Secretaiy of Louisiana Territory where his career was useful and 
eminent. 

Some difficulty was experienced in filling his place. In Febru- 



ADDKK.SS OK HON. .lAMKS V. (AMriJKIJ,. 113 

ary, 1807, Johu Coburii of Keutucky was nominated and conlirmed, 
but never accepted the office, and in the following November was 
nominated and confirmed as a judge in Louisiana. At the .same 
time Return Jonatlian Meig.s, Jr., was nominated i'oi- Miciiigan. 
The President had appointed him during the recess of the Senate, 
but he never sat in court. The nomination was rejected. The rea- 
sons do not ap[)ear, but the Senate directed their action on this and 
previous nominations of the same gentleman to be transmitted to 
the Governor of Ohio, — a proceeding not usual and unexplained. 

It was not until April, 1808, that a further nomination was 
made of James Witheri'U who was confirmed without dilHcultv. 
(Tovernor Hull's re-nomination at the same session led to a long 
investigation during which various calls made on tiie President and 
Secretary of War for the communication of papers and information 
were fully responded to, and at last he was confirmed by a yea 
and nay vote of 18 to 10. One chief ground of objection which 
turned out to be unfounded, was a charge that he had used bills 
of the Bank of Detroit to pay public dues after it had been abol- 
ished by act of Congress. In this matter Judge Woodward, who 
was the president of the bank, was the chief offender, and one of 
the hottest conflicts that arose between him and Gov. Hull grew 
out of an act to punish the circulation of illegal bank bills, 
adopted in his absence by Gov. Hull and Judge Witherell against 
the opposition of Judge Grittin. On the i6th of Septeuiber, 181U, 
Woodward and Griffin being in a majority, by reason of Judge 
WitherelTs absence, adopted a law^ repealing all acts passed between 
June 2, 1807 and September 1, 1810, which inchnled the obnoxi- 
ous acts passed during Woodw.ird's absence. In the controversies 
several criminal prosecutions arose out of assaults upon and by 
friends of the disputants, and grand juries under prompting under- 
took at various times to present legislation as a nuisance and to 
find [)resentments against both Governor Hull and the Chief 
Justice, all of which were of course of no legal account. On 
September 22, 1810, the grand jury having made some present- 
ments of persons not named in the court records, the Chief Justice, 
in spite of the law forbidding their disclosure of the action in 
their consulting room, actually polled them and re(piired each to 
answer whether he voted for the presentment. It is hard to con- 
ceive a more audacious violation of law. 

So long as Governor Iluirs administration ('(Hitinued, this 
8 



114 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

unseemly controversy was kept up and entered into the court as 
well as the Legislature. Judge Witherell was the only one who 
retained public respect. He and Woodward were personally 
hostile. If it had not been for Woodward's services to the citi- 
zens of the Territory during the war, he would probably have 
been impeached. Hull's demerits and Woodward's good conduct 
then removed much bitterness, and under Gen. Cass* administra- 
tion no demonstrations were made which produced general dis- 
cord, although the court was not harmonious. 

During the period before the war the court had to pass upon 
some important questions, and displayed learning and ability. 
The position of slaves held before Jay's Treaty within the Terri- 
tory was decided to be the same as before, and several such per- 
sons were remanded to their masters, but procured freedom by 
crossing into Canada, whence they subsequently returned and 
were not molested. But it was held that Canadian slaves coming 
into Michigan could not be delivered up. Cases also arose under 
the non-intercourse or embargo acts, and property imported at 
Mackinaw was seized and forfeited. The court was also on one 
occasion called on by the State Department to make inquiries 
into the the tarring and feathering- of an obnoxious person who 
came into the Territory from Canada to seize runaway slaves. 
The case does not seem to have become a casus belli. There was 
one class of cases where the records appear very discreditably. 
Several British officers aided by some Americans kidnapped a 
deserter from Canada by armed force and under very aggravated 
circumstances, and on conviction were heavily sentenced. Upon 
Judge Griffin's taking his seat, presumably by the majority thus 
created over Judge Bates, all of these sentences were made nom- 
inal and reduced to fines of a few cents. 

The periods before and after the war of 1812 were so dift'erent 
in the general current of affairs as to have very little resem- 
blance. General Cass was disposed as far as possible to Amer- 
icanize our methods, and open the way to local institutions. 
Changes were also made in the judicial system The original 
jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was confined to cases involving 
more than ^1,000, excejjt in ejectment. County courts were 
established having original jurisdiction (except in ejectment) in all 
cases not exceeding $1,000, and not cognizable by justices. Until 
tho Territory should contain more than one county, the County 



ADDRESS OK HOX. .(AMES V. CAMri'.F.r,!,. 115 

Court was to be held in Detroit, the old District Court continuing 
at Michiliinackinac, but iiowhei'e else. Judges of the County 
courts consisted of one Chief and two Associate Justices, who 
were usually (although not required to be) laymen, and who were 
invariably business men in whom the people had confidence. 
These courts, as long as they lasted, retained the public esteem- 
None of the judges was a non-resident when appointed, and all 
were familiar with the ways of their fellow-citizens. Their judg- 
ments, although open to appeal, were generally acquiesced in. 
Few courts have ever had men of higher character or wiser dis- 
cretion than the Territorial County Judges. Sheriffs, coroners 
and constables were {)rovided for in each county as it should be 
established. These offi(;ers were all appointed by the Governor. 
Michilimackinac and Prairie des Chiens were made corporate 
boroughs in 1817 and 1821 with all ordinary municipal powers in 
the hands of the citizens. Inn)risonment for debt was made less 
rigorous, and the prison limits were made coincident with the 
county. Monroe county was establi'shed by the Governor July 
14, 1817, shortly before the expected visit of President Monroe, 
who came to Di'troit in August. Wayne county had been 
re-established November 1, 1815. Macomb county was set apart 
January 15, 1818, Michilimackinac October 26, 1818, Oakland 
January 12, 1819, St. Clair March 28, 1820, and Lapeer, Sani- 
lac, Saginaw, Shiawassee, Washtenaw and Lenawee were defined 
but not organized September 10, 1822. The present State of 
Wisconsin was organized into Brown and Crawford counties on 
the same day that Michilimackinac count}' was created. All 
county officers were appointed. 

In 1817, a Court of Quarter Sessions was created for purely 
administrative purposes, composed of the County Judges and 
Justices of the Peace. They were to transact the county business 
and see to the assessments and raising of taxes. Thev were also 
required to divide their counties into townships and report their 
action to the Governor, who only could actually make the divis- 
ion operative. The first townships were established in Wayne 
county in pursuance of such recommendations January 5, 1818. 
On the same day Gov. Cass ordered an election to determine 
whether the inhabitants of the Territory desired to have a Terri- 
torial Legislature, such as they were entitled to under the Onli- 
nance of 1787. The people decided by a decisive majority 
against assuming the responsibilities of self-government. 



116 .Michigan'^ semi-centennial. 

County Commissioners appointed by the Governor afterwards 
superseded the Quarter Sessions. 

In 1823 a radical change was made in territorial aliairs. Con- 
gress decided for the people, who AA'ould not choose for themselves, 
that there should be a Territorial Legislature, differing from that 
contem])lated by the Ordinance, but intended, to prepare for it. 
Eighteen persons were to be elected, of whom nine should be 
designated by the President, with the consent of the Senate, to 
form a Legislative Council, with general powers, and with power 
to submit to the people whether they would have a general assem- 
bly of two houses, such as the Ordinance contemplated. The law 
of 182o provided that thereafter the Territorial Judges should be 
appointed for four years instead of during good behavior, and that 
the existing judges should go out of office in February, 1824. 
An act of Congress of 1825, empowered the Legislative Council 
to divide the Territory into townships and allow them to elect 
their own officers. It also provided for electing all county officers 
except judges, justices of the peace, clerks and sheriffs. All 
officers not elective or appointed by the President were to be 
appointed by the Governor and Council. The numbers of the 
Council were enlarged to thirteen. In 1827 the people were 
allowed to elect their own Council without the intervention of the 
President and Senate. This completed the territorial organiza- 
tion, as the people never adopted the legislative system which 
they were empowered to do under the Ordinance of 1787. 

There is no doubt that the judges were legislated out of office 
because they had become intolerable to the people. Judge 
Witherell was the only one reappointed. Judge Woodward was 
made Territorial Judge in Florida. Judge Griffin left the Terri- 
tory. 

The upper country being difficult of access, and the I'egionwest 
of Lake Michigan having been attached to the Territory, provis- 
sion was made January 30, 1823, whereby a judge should be 
appointed by the United States to hold a court of original juris- 
diction such as was exercised by both Supreme and County Courts 
in Michilimackinac, Jirown and Crawford counties, with appeal 
to the Supreme Court. The original jurisdiction of all the other 
(!Ourts there was superseded. James Duane Doty, a gentleman 
distinguished since in })ublic life, was made such judge, and held 
office so long as the Territory existed. In the same year, 1823, 



ADDRESS OK HON. .IAM];s V. ( A M I'KKI.I,. 117 

the building of ii Court House was begun in Detroit, uuder the 
Congressional appropriation of lands near Detroit. This house 
was built by Thomas Palmer, father of our present Senator, who 
took the appropriated lands in payment. The building was used 
by the Territory as a Court House and Council Chamber, and b}' 
the State, without any ap|)arent authority, as a Capitol, to the 
exclusion of the c<)urts. After the Capitol was fixed at Lansing 
it was used for school purposes, with the authority finally secured 
of the United States, the State and the city of Detroit. The first 
uuion school in the State was held there and it afterwards became 
the site of the Detroit High School. 

The Supreme Court under the Congressional revision of the 
territorial system was for the first time made subject to appellate 
action by the Supreme Court of the United States. It consisted 
of .Janie.< Withcrcll, Solomon Sibley and John Hunt, all, with 
James Dnane Doty, appointee! January 19 and confirmed January 
21, 1824, and all residents of the Territory. Judge Hunt ilied 
before his term expired, and IIeni<y Chipman was appointed in 
his place, and was confirmed December 27, 1827. On the 7th 
day of January, 1828, Judge Sibley was re-nominated and William 
Woodbridge, who had been Territorial Secretary, was nominated 
to succeed »Iudge Witherell, who took his place as Secretary. All 
were confirmed. 

lu 1832 Judge Sibley continued in office by re-appointment, 
and George Morell, of New York, and Ross Wilkins, of Pennsyl- 
vania, neither of whom had ever been in Michigan, were appointed 
and confirmed as successors of Judges Chipman and Woodbridge. 
The court continued to consist of Judges Sibley, Morell and 
Wilkins when the State was organized. All of the judges who 
were in office after 1824 were sound lawyers and able magistrates, 
and have left behind tlu'in honorable memories and a system 
which was largely their work. 

l)y a law of l'^27, |)assed ^Vpril 13, Circuit Courts were created 
with appellate jurisdiction ovei' County Courts, and I'c^ncurrent 
original jurisdiction with them up to §1,000, and exclusive beyond 
it, in cases of common law. IJoth courts had criminal jurisdic- 
tion. .V Juilge of the Supreme (!ourt held the Circuit Court of 
each county. A{)ril 15, 1833, a new system of Circuit Courts was 
created. All the counties east of Lake Michigan but Wavue 
county were to be one circuit. A Circuit Judge, who must be a 



118 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

lawyer, was to preside throughout the circuit in each county, and 
two associate judges in each county, who might be laymen, were 
to hold the Circuit Court for their counties with the Circuit Judge. 
Any two might act, except on trials of felony, when the Circuit 
Judge must be present. These courts had equity as well as law 
powers, and general original jurisdiction, the County Courts being 
abolished. The old Circuit Courts presided over by Supreme 
Court Judges were retained and called Superior Circuit Courts, 
with appellate jurisdiction over the new ones. At the same session 
a full statute was passed giving chancery powers to the Supreme 
and Circuit Courts, and making a very complete and thorough 
system of procedure which was the basis of our subsequent legis- 
lation on chancery procedure. It was prepared, as it is under- 
stood, under the direction of Elon Farnsworth, the subsequent Chan- 
cellor. Provision was also made then and subsequently for fixing 
the county seats of the annexed country east and west of the Missis- 
sippi. Wayne and Brown counties retained their County Courts 
as well as their Circuit Courts. In January, 1835, the office of 
the Register of Probate, who had been not only vested with some 
probate jurisdiction, but also with the duty of recording deeds, 
was abolished, and his powers were divided between Judges of 
Probate and County Registers. 

On the 12th of February, 1835, a very severe criminal act was 
passed to punish the exercise of any foreign jurisdiction within 
the Territory. This was the beginning of the active measures to 
exclude encroachments on our southern boundary. 

No further changes were made in the judicial system of the 
Territory. 

On the 26th day of January, 1835, an act was passed to enable 
the people of Michigan to form a constitution and State govern- 
ment. Referring to the Ordinance of 1787 and subsequent legis- 
lation fixing the boundaries of the State to be erected, and author- 
izing its admission when having a })opulation of sixty thousand 
free inhabitants, this statute recited that by legislative authority 
it had been ascertained that there were 87,273 free inhabitants 
within those limits. It then provided that the free white male 
inhabitants over twenty-one years old within those limits should 
elect delegates to a convention to meet at Detroit on the second 
Monday of May. On the 27th of March provision was made 
that any citizens ordered into military service might vote in any 
district where they should be. 



ADDRESS OF HON. .lAMES V. CAMI'BKI.L. ll'.> 

This convention met ^May 11, and on -June 2*J finished its work 
by adopting a constitution which was to be voted on upon the 
first Monday of October, KS3o. At the same election a (iovernor, 
Lieutenant-Governor, members of" the State Legislature and Rep- 
resentative in Congress were to be elected. In case the constitu- 
tion should be adopted, the Legislature was to meet on the first 
Monday of November. 

The judicial system of the Territory was to remain in f)rce until 
superseded by State legislation. 

The Constitution was adopted. Stevens T. Mason was elected 
Governor, and Edmund Muiuly, Lieuteuant-Governor. Isaac E. 
Crary was elected Representative in Congress for the State. The 
Legislature met on the appointed day, and on the 10th of Novem- 
ber, 1835, passed a resolution for the election of Senators. Lucius 
Lyon and John Norvell were elected, Mr. Lyon by both houses, 
and Mr. Norvell by majority in joint convention. The Senate 
was Whig, and the House Democratic. Major John Biddle? 
who was President of the Conventio«, had a majority of four in 
the Senate, and Mr. Norvell a majority of seven in the House. 

After some necessary financial legislation the Legislature 
adjourned until February, 1836. Law^s were passed at the extra 
session to organize the Supreme and Circuit courts, and a court 
of Chancery, to come into existence after July 4, 1836, when the 
jurisdiction of the territorial courts was to cease. 

When the Constitution of l^oo was adopted, the Territory of 
Michigan had received so large an increase of population from 
other parts of the United States that the whole public system had 
become orderly and adapted to all conditions of local self-govern- 
ment. Counties, townships, road and school districts, and all the 
the judicial machinery corresponded substantially with what might 
be found in New York or New England. In the main things had 
been patterned after New York, from which the largest immigra- 
tion had come. l>ut the territorial officers were always inclined to 
perpetuate their own early institutions, and as they were of various 
origins, the result naturally followed that there were some incon- 
gruities. New York and Massachusetts finally lent more than 
all the other States, and there are still easily detected systematic 
portions of legislation traced to those separate sources. Particular 
statutes were borrowed from all sources. 

It became necessary at various times during the territorial period 



120 :\[ichigan's semi-centennial. 

to gather together the scattered laws, which had become confused 
by the careless methods of the first period of Governor and Judges, 
and still more so by the independent way in which Judge Wood- 
ward and his ally, Judge Griffin, disregarded all laws which they 
did not fancy. Between the organization of the Territory and 
the adoption of the State Constitution there were five diflferent 
collections published, and of these none prior to 1827 was complete. 
In 1806 a collection was made, including thirty-four laws passed 
in 1805, which was accurate as far as it went, but which gave no 
light concerning the old laws in force. The condition of things 
was not very favorable for enabling the people to understand the 
laws. There were very few in the Territory who understood 
English. There were no newspapers and no other means of 
spreading intelligence. This volume was printed in Washington, 
and was not published until many more statutes had been adopted, 
some of which materially altered the former ones. Between this 
time and 1816 the changes became numerous, and the conflicts 
and inconsistencies very great. Of this new legislation much was 
never published at all, and remained unknown. Most of the acts 
were not brought to public knowledge for long periods, and many 
were repealed before any one ever heard of them. Eighty were 
never put in print, so far as known, until 188-4, when they were 
published in a supplementary volume to the recent reprint of 
territorial statutes. Nothing but tiie healing power of time, and 
the operation of limitation laws, has prevented the ignorance of 
some of these enactments from working mischief. 

In 1816 a synoptical arrangement of the substance of the laws 
supposed to be in force in that year was printed. Very few pro- 
visions were printed in full, and several statutes were not found. 

In 1820 the condition of affairs was brought to the attention of 
Congress. That body appropriated twelve hundred and fifty dol- 
lars, and required all laws in force to be published together, under 
the supervision of the territorial authorities. At that time Wil- 
liam Woodbridge was Secretary, afterwards Judge, Governor and 
State Senator. The result was a well edited compilation, then 
supposed to be complete, of existing laws, known as the Compila- 
tion of 1821. The Legislative Council, which held its first session 
in 1824, caused the session laws to be published regularly, but it 
was discovered that acts still existed which were not in print, or 
not known, and litigation frequently arose which brought out 



ADDKESS OF HON. .lAMES V. CAMI'liKLL. 121 

surprises. To put an end to this mischief it was determined to 
supersede all the existing volumes l)y a new and complete revision. 

On the 21st of April, 1625, a resolution was adopted appoint- 
ing William Woodhridge, Abraham Edwards, John Stockton, 
Wolcott Laurence and William A. Fletcher a (lonunission to 
revise the laws. Asa M. Rol)ins(>n was afterwards put in place of 
Mr. Woodbridge, who resigned. 'I'he resolution very careliilly 
indicated what rides should govern the work, which were in sul)- 
stance these : All acts concerning the same subject were to be 
digested into one act. The commission was authorized to follow 
the principles of existing acts or to make such alterations and 
additions as should be deemed ex|)edient. l^nnecessary acts 
might be left out, and deficiencies supplied. The result was to be 
certified to the Legislature for consideration. 

The commission prepared what is now known as the Revision 
of 1827, in which, while substantially conforming in most things 
to the old system, nearly all important measures were put in the 
shape of new, separate enactments, drawn with skill and leaving 
out very few things of consequence. It was enacted substantially 
as reported, and in order to prevent any further evils from igno- 
rance, it was provided that all acts not therein specified should be 
repealed. The Territory thus had for the first time a complete 
code of all its existing laws. In lSo3 a smaller compilation was 
})ublished, including some later statutes and some reprints of older 
ones. Most of the legislation after 1827 was special, but some 
general laws were passed, the most important of which was a ten- 
years limitation law, applicable only to existing cases, and con- 
taining no saving clauses. The ])revious laws had failed to cover 
the whole ground, and antiipiated land claims, with no particular 
e(]uities, had been used in some cases for extortion. 

The new Legislature went to work vigorously to complete the 
State organization. Although Congress kept the State waiting for 
recognition and admission to representation for more than a year 
the local government has always been recognized as beginning in 
the fall of 1835, and the whole machinery of general and local 
business was arranged by legislation adopted in the early part of 
1836, or in 1835. 

Provision was made for the appointment of all necessary public 
officers and the organization of courts, and all the business was to 
be transferred from the Territorial to the State courts after July 



122 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

4, 1836, at which time, under the action of Congress, Wisconsin 
became a detached Territory. All the old courts were abolished. 
The Constitution made no direct requirement concerning any courts 
but the Supreme and Probate courts. It had provisions bearing 
upon County and Circuit courts if any should be established. Full 
order was given concerning Justices of the Peace. All county 
officers but Prosecuting Attorneys were made elective. These were 
appointed as State officers, and were evidently treated as repre- 
senting State interests, and named with the Attorney General. 
All State officers and State judges were appointed by the Governor 
and Senate. 

The courts of record which were provided for were the Supreme, 
Circuit and Probate Courts, with substantially the same powers 
as the old courts except in equity. A separate Court of Chancery 
was established, from which an appeal lay to the Supreme Court. 
Pending cases were transferred to the new courts. The judges and 
chancellor were appointed by the Governor and Senate for periods 
of seven years. 

The first Supreme Court consisted of William A. Fletcher, 
Chief Justice, and George Morell and Epaphroditus Ransom, As- 
sociate Justices. Each was assigned to a circuit. Wayne, Ma- 
comb, St. Clair, Lapeer, Michilimackinac and Chippewa, with the 
country attached to each, formed the first circuit, presided over by 
Judge Morell. Monroe, Lenawee, Washtenaw, Oakland, Saginaw, 
Jackson and Hillsdale formed the second circuit, alloted to Chief 
Justice Fletcher. Judge Ransom held the courts in the third cir- 
cuit, consisting of Branch, St. Joseph, Cass, Berrien, Kalamazoo, 
Allegan, Calhoun and Kent, with attached territory. One term 
of the Supreme Court was held annually in Wayne, Washtenaw, 
and Kalamazoo. Terras of the Circuit Courts were held once or 
more annually in each county. Two Associate Judges were elected 
in each county every four years to sit in the Circuit Court, but in 
case of their absence a judge of the Supreme Court could sit alone. 
These associates were not generally lawyers. 

Judge Sibley for personal reasons did not desire an appointment 
to the State bench. He was a man of great ability and wisdom, 
and had universal confidence. He lived to advanced age. The 
Chief Justice was an old resident of the Territory who had held 
judicial <jffice and had done most of the work of the compilation of 
1827. Judge Morell had been nominated by President Jackson, 



ADDRESS OF HON. JAMES V. CAMl'iiELL. 123 

witli Judge Williams, to succeed Judges Chipruan and Wo(jd- 
bridge in 1832. He \va.s a native of" Berkshire county, Massa- 
chusetts, but received most of his legal training in New York, 
where he was a fellow student with Governor Marcy «'iiid Chan- 
cellor Walworth, and where he obtained a good reputation at the 
IJar and in various offices in ])ul)lic life. He was one of the most 
thorouglily trained common Jawyei's in the State, and ti'ansacted 
business with readiness and accuracy. His circuit was tlie most 
laborious of all, and his work was promptly and well done. 
Upon the resignation of Judge Fletcher in 1842 he was made 
Chief Justice for the remainder of his term. Judge Ransom came 
to Michigan not flir from the time of the close of the territorial 
period, having been a successful practitioner in New England. 
At the close of his first term in 1843 he was made Chief Justice 
to succeed Judge Morell, and continued to fill the office until he 
became Governor flanuary 1, 1843. He was much respected for 
ability and uprightness and exercised his judicial functions accept- 
ably to the people and the Bar. He \V'as a man of good common 
sense as well as legal sufficiency, and had great personal popu- 
larity. 

Judge Wilkins was appointed District Judge of the United 
States for the District of Michigan several months in advance of 
the final admission of the State, and did not become a member of 
the State judiciary. He remained in office until 1870, when he 
retired on full pay, having reached and passed his three score 
years and ten, and having served thirty-eight years on the bench 
in Michigan. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention 
of 1835, ar.d of the regularly elected convention which in 1836 
rejected the proposition of Congress to give up the disputed terri- 
tory to Ohio, in exchange for so much of the Upper Peninsula 
as was not within the State boundaries. He was also one of the 
persons who called shortly thereafter the irregular body known 
as the Frostbitten Convention, that undertook to accept the (Con- 
gressional scheme on their own responsibility, and got the State 
into the Union through the back door. He took an interest in 
most public matters, and was a very useful regent of the univer- 
sity. In private life he was genial and humorous. 

The first (Chancellor, Ellon Farnsworth, was admirably fitted 
for his office. He was a thorough scholar as well as lawyer, with 
cool judgment and an intuitive knowledge of men, and an enlight- 



124 MICHIGAN S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

ened sense of justice. Under his careful administration the equity 
system became well adapted to the necessities of the community, 
and divested of unreasonable conditions and vexatious delay. 
Very few of his decrees were reversed, and still less ought to have 
been. He belonged to the same class of wise and sensible jurists 
as Chancellor Kent, whom in character and attainments he closely 
resembled. He gave up liis office before his term expired and was 
succeeded by Randolph Manning, who him.self resigned in 1846 
upon the action of the Legislature looking to the abolition of the 
court, and Chancellor Farnsworth reluctantly accepted a reap- 
pointment in the hope at the Bar that his popularity might induce 
the restoration of that tribunal. The tide, however, had set in 
another direction and could not be turned. Chancellor Manning 
was an able and upright judge, who had filled other offices use- 
fully and made an excellent Chancellor. Unfortunately during 
his term there was great occasion for severity in dealing with a 
good many frauds and corporate insolvencies growing out of the 
general business disasters, and he became more or less obnoxious 
to some influential persons who opposed him strenuously. With 
all his firmness and positiveness he was a warm hearted and gen- 
erous man, who was held in the strongest esteem by those who 
knew him best. 

At the beginning of the State existence legal proceedings, 
although somewhat simplified, retained a great deal of unneces- 
sary prolixity and technicality. The statutes of amendments 
were reasonably liberal, but special pleading still prevailed, and 
while notices might be used instead of pleas, the practice was so 
strict that very little was gained by it. Judge Morell and Chief 
Justice Fletcher were both thoroughly trained in legal dialectics, 
and opposed to any laxity in pleading or practice, having been 
educated where such things were regarded as of great importance. 
In the project of his Revision of 183(S, Judge Fletcher seemed 
disposed to go back rather than to advance in liberality of ])rac- 
tice. Judge Ransom, while careful in his practice, was much 
less inclined to excessive strictness. Fortunately it happened not 
long after the courts were organized that the English courts 
adopted a series of rules for the simplification of pleading and 
practice, that was found so great an improvement as to induce 
the best members of our Bar to urge their adoption here. The 
struggle was a sharp one, but liberality prevailed. The Revision 



ADDKKSS OF HON. .lAMKS V. CAMl'lIEFJ,. 125 

of 1838 made such provisions iu regard to lees that it was an 
object for every practitioner to make his papers as prolix and his 
action as dilatory as possible. Declarations containing from fifty 
counts upward w^ere not unknown, and as every folio added very 
considerably to the fee bill, it was not uncommon for some lawyers 
to make an effort to lengthen their papers as far as possible, and to 
use every opportunity to make motions and dilatory proceedings. 
In spite of this there were enough among the abler members of 
the Bar to push forward the measures of reform. In 18-10 a 
statute wa*^ passed which reduced taxable costs to a dead level, 
and a very low one. This no doubt had some effect in helping 
on simplification, and the change went on steadily and intelli- 
gently, until it would be difficult to devise a system which reaches 
results as raj)idly or as easily as our own. 

One of the incidents of what have been called the flush times, 
was an idea that values might be created on paper out of very little 
material. Lands were bought at low prices and supposed by the 
process of platting to increase in value' fifty or a hundred fold. 
Corporations were created for all manner of purposes, with no per- 
sonal responsibility, and with capital fixed by inflated rates, 
Banks sprang u[) in every village and hamlet, and sometimes with 
no discoverable habitation. A neatly engraved bill, issued by a 
chartered corporation, was assumed to be good without inquiring 
into the character or standing of its originators. The abundance 
of this easily obtained wealth led to speculation and extravagance, 
and the facilities for obtaining credit gavi' many rogues a plausible 
footing. Naturally frauds multi})lied. The Court of Chancery 
was crowded with litigation, and when the crash came, all the 
courts were overburdened. 

One of the first things called to the attention of the Legislature 
by the Governor, was the importance of revising and consolidating 
the laws. On the 8th of March, I806, an act w^as passed appoint- 
ing William A. Fletcher, then acircuit judge and afterwards chief 
justice of the Supreme Court, to prepare, digest and arrange a 
code of laws for the government of this State, and that he report 
the result of his labors to the Legislature on th(> first Monday of 
January, 1837. 

The report ^vas not ready, and on the 21st of March, 1837, a 
fi'.rther resolution was passed extending the time until the 9th of 
Novend)er, l'S37. and authoiiziug him to report the laws digested 



126 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

in the shape of separate bills. That was the course which he 
pursued in 1827, each subject being then dealt with by itself, and 
no arbitrary or other arrangement being made into chapters, 
books or titles. On the same day another resolution was passed 
requesting the Commissioner not to embody the principle of impris- 
onment for debt in the system of consolidated laws, but to provide 
for issuing summary proce.ss to commence suits, and speedy execu- 
tion, In November, 1837, the Legislature met to consider the 
report of the Commissioner, and finally adopted his action with 
little modification and hardly any scrutiny. 

The result was unfortunate. It was intended that no serious 
change should be made in the statutes. If this plan had been 
carried out no confusion would have arisen. But the reviser 
shaped matters very much to suit himself, and the fact that the 
chapters were first introduced separately prevented the Legisla- 
ture from discovering all the changes and omissions. In some 
instances he directly disregarded positive instructions, and the 
deviation was not discovered till afterwards. He paid no atten- 
tion — as they supposed he had attended — to the directions con- 
cerning imprisonment for debt, and the law as he reported it was 
as severe as ever. He restored the system of County Commis- 
sioners, who had been for ten years replaced by the Board of 
Supervisors. He made no provision whatever for the regulation 
of the State prison. He omitted the very necessary provisions for 
proceeding against corporations in chancery, and did not provide 
any statutory means, legal or equitable, for winding them up. 
The provisions for executing and recording deeds were left in 
great disorder. He omitted the old provisions for allowing notices 
instead of special pleas. Many omissions were afterwards dis- 
covered in the details of business in courts and elsewhere concern- 
ing testimony and other essentials, and the various officers and 
their powers auxiliary to judicial action. The non-imprisonment 
of debtors and the equitable control of failing corporations were 
at that time as imjiortant questions as any that could be found. 

The haste with which this revision was prepared and adopted 
rendered it very unsatisfactory. It was ordered to go into effect 
August 1, 1838, and in the meantime it required arranging, print- 
ing and indexing. Before it was ready for the printer's hands 
some further changes and additions became necessary. 

The previous revisions had been arranged in natural order by 



ADDRESS OF HON. .lAMES V. CAMIT.KLL. 127 

subjects, and sometimes alphabetically. The arrangement of this 
code was left to the two commissioners appointed by the Gover- 
nor. E. Burke Harrington and Elijah ,]. Roberts were selected 
for this purpose. Mr. Harrington was a lawyer who had before 
leaving New York been one of the compilers of an excellent 
chancery digest. He was the first State reporter of Michigan. 
^Ir. Roberts was a gentleman of experience in journalism and an 
accomplished writer and editor. By reason of illness Mr. 
Roberts could do very little, and Mr. Harrington was obliged to 
complete the task nearly unaided, except more or less by the 
reviser. He brought to his task a profound admiration for the 
complicated divisions and sub-divisions of the New York revised 
statutes, and parcelled out the contents into parts, titles, chapters 
and sections, so that every citation had to be made with four 
references. To those unused to such a roundabout way of point- 
ing out what was meant to be indicated, this was annoying and 
liable to lead to slips and blunders. When the book was out and 
distributed the legislative session of 1839 was near at hand, and 
before it met the defects of the new code were apparent to every 
one. The time of the Legislature was largely taken up that 
winter in rectifying the mistakes, supplying the deficiencies, and 
undoing the unwise provisions of the unfortunate code, so that 
the session laws of 1839 not only contained many detached 
amendatory acts, but also embody one very long omnibus act 
which referred to nearly all parts of the book as subject to modi- 
fication. The changes of that year were not the legislation that 
is so common which alters without much reason and without pre- 
serving congruity. It was almost entirely, if not altogether, 
necessary to make th6 statutes what the Legislature originally 
supposed or meant them to be. 

There was no meeting of the Legislature from that time until 
1846, when further amendments in considerable numbers were 
not made, and when many of them were not needed. It was 
more difficult than ever before to know what the statutes provided 
on the ordinary affairs of life. In 184(5 anew revision was made 
which contained radical changes in the law. 

The courts which were organized in 1886 worked smoothly and 
the system was satisfactory. With the exception of a local crim- 
inal court in Wayne and the adjoining counties, over which 
Judge Chipniun presided which was afterwards cut down to 



128 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Wayue county unci held by Judge Benjamin F. H. Witherell — 
no new tribunals were erected, although some special cases were 
provided for, and the criminal jurisdiction of justices was for a 
time in courts of special sessions instead of single justices. Proposals 
were now and then made by zealous reformers to popularize liti- 
gation and confine it to courts not supposed to be hampered by 
any blind adherence to law. But these notions passed aw-ay. In 
1838 it was found necessary to enlarge the judicial force, and 
Charles W. Whipple was added to "the Supreme bench and a 
fourth Circuit was created over which he presided. Alpheus 
Felch succeeded Judge Fletcher in his Circuit, and Daniel Good- 
win took the place of Judge Morell. Judge Felch and Judge 
Goodwin are still among us in the full vigor of their mental 
powers. Judge Felch, who had previously been Auditor General, 
was, during his judicial term, elected Governor, and then United 
States Senator, and still later Commissioner to investigate laud 
titles in California, and in all of his life has been distinguished 
for diligence, capacity and fidelity. Judge Goodwin who has 
also filled several important Federal and State offices by appoint- 
ment or election, resigned his position on the Supreme Court 
bench after a comparatively short service. He was afterwards 
President of the Second Constitutional Convention, Judge of the 
District Court of the Upper Peninsula till it became a Circuit, 
and thereafter Circuit Judge through various terms, retiring at 
the last judicial election after a long and houorable^service seldom 
equalled. The old Supreme and Circuit Court system continued 
until the C^onstitution of 1850, Judges AVarner AVing, Abner 
Pratt, Sanford M. Green, George Miles, Edward Mundy and 
George Martin at various times forming part of it. Judge Mundy, 
the first Lieutenant Governor, was appointed as a fifth judge in 
1848. In 1849, by a constitutional amendment submitted and in 
due time adopted, the office was made elective, and George Mar- 
tin was the only member of that court who was elected and not 
appointed. 

In 1845 Sanford JM. Green was appointed to prepare a new 
revision. His work, which was very deliberately and carefully 
prepared and homogeneous, was presented to the Legislature of 
1846, conveniently divided in continuous chapters. It was not a 
propitious time for careful consideration. Several disturbing ele- 
ments were present. In that winter the Legislature discussed and 



ADDRESS OF HON. .(AMKS V. CAMIM5KI.I,. 129 

decided on the policy of selling the works of internal improve- 
ment which had been partially completed. 'I'he Mi(;higan Cen- 
tral and Southern Railroads were disposed of to private corpora- 
tions, and a reduction thereby made in the State debt. The Upper 
Peninsula was coming into notice in consequence of the location 
of mining property, and there was considerable discussion of its 
necessities, and counties were organized within it. The discussion 
of the removal of the State Capital had not yet begun within the 
Legislature, but it was not left out of sight entirely. New corpo- 
rate enterprises were springing up everywhere, and much time 
was spent in dealing with their special charters. The session was 
a very busy one, and some relief as well as amusement was Ibund 
in the final disposition of Lewis E. Bailey's claim for a horse lost 
in the Toledo war, which had been persistently urged annually, at 
the cost of much time and patience, and was now allowed. 

The session was emj)haticaily a debating one, and Judge Green's 
symmetrical revision was robbed of much of its coinj)leteness, and 
changed with small regard to its hacnjony. The most striking 
changes consisted in abolishing the Court of Chancery, and in 
creating County Courts with elected first and second judges, 
having a general original common-law jurisdiction, civil and 
criminal. The chancery business was transferred to the Circuit 
Courts. The effect of this sudden revolution at the time was very 
bad. The equity business was large and important. It was uni- 
formly made to give way to the common-law business, all cases 
being then tried by jury, and it became sul)ject to tlie delays 
which have been proverbial in some other regions, but which did 
not exist under our thorough chancellors. It w^as also subject to 
another railical mischief The Chancery liar had up to that time 
included but a small percentage of the lawyers, and required a sepa- 
rate and thorough examination for admission. Many able common 
lawyers knew nothing of equity, and even some\)f the judges had 
given it less attention than was desirable. The clerks elected for 
each county, with no professional knowledge, became at once 
ex-officio registers in chancery, and every attorney became a 
solicitor and counsellor in equity. For several years the interests 
of suitors were severely tried. It took a long time to get the 
mixed practice into good working order. The County Courts 
turned out badly. In some counties where business was large 
and the right men accepted office, those courts worked reasonably 
9 



130 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

well. lu inauy counties less care was taken and they did not 
approve themselves to the public sense. In the beginning the 
judges were paid by fees, and this injured the standing of the 
tribunals. This was afterwards changed, and they received fixed 
compensation. Upon the whole, in spite of the good service of 
some excellent judges, there was no lamentation when these courts 
ceased to exist. The experiment was one which it was perhaps 
well to try. But the changed conditions of business, and the 
necessity of having courts frequently open and judges who must 
devote much time to their work, rendered it impracticable to 
revive the old lay courts, where business men found it no sacrifice 
to attend short sessions while spending most of their time in their 
own affairs. The courts organized did not as a rule have either 
the best laymen or the best lawyers to conduct them. Few 
important cases ended there, and they served to enable suitors to 
get one more delay in the progress of litigation, and to encourage 
vexatious defences. Every separate tribunal, intervening between 
the beginning and the end of controversy, has the inevitable ten- 
dency to induce parties who wish time to prosecute appeals, which 
would never have been taken unless delay was profitable. 

Capital punishment was abolished by the Revision of 1847, and 
then, as now, there was much difference of sentiment upon it. 

The State began to recover from its poverty in 1843 and 1844, 
and before 1850 was on the way to prosperity. Between 1846 
and 1850 the election of judges was much discussed, and in 1849 
it was enacted by constitutional amendment that thenceforward 
all judges should be elective. The Constitutional Convention of 
1850 which adopted our present Constitution, contained a very 
large number of members zealous for novelty. It also had many 
of the most experienced and statesmanlike citizens of the State. 
A natural result was that some very radical changes were made 
but little, if anything, which could be called revolutionary affected 
judicial matters. The most unpleasant features were a too great 
attention to details in grants and limitations of power, which have, 
on some occasions, endangered the public welfare for lack of dis- 
cretionary authority in the Legislature. Attempts to fix salaries 
and some other things which depend very much for their ade- 
quacy on changing circumstances, have led to some evil. But a 
thing which struck many j)ersons unpleasantly was the number of 
provisions which seem to indicate that it was supposed the people 



ADDRESS OF HON. JAMES V. CAMIMIKI.I,. 131 

coiiKl not trust their agents and representatives. There are few 
constitutions which have led to so mucli litigation concerning the 
validity of legislation. Much of this difficulty has been modified 
or removed by the lapse of time and the instinctive adaptation of 
popular ways to their surroundings. It has, as a whole, been a 
useful instrument. The evident unwillingness of the people to 
give it up entirely for a new one shows that it is thought better to 
amend than supersede it. There are two important provisions 
which bear upon the statutes. One forbade the passing of laws 
with double objects or misleading titles, confining every act to 
the single purpose suggested by its title. This was an excellent 
rule and has prevented some frauds and much heedless legislation. 
The other prohibited revisions of the statutes, and authorized com- 
piled reprints of existing laws when needed. Such a compilation 
was authorized and carried out by Judge Cooley in 1857, whose 
excellent arrangement, based on the Revision of 1816 as far as 
practicable, was adopted in the second compilation of 1871, by 
Judge Dewey. A private enterprise since of Judge HowelTs on 
the same plan but annotated further, is in general use and well 
executed. 

The repeal of the constitutional re(|uirement of prosecutions 
of crime by grand juries has led since to a practical abandon- 
ment of that system, although not absolutely abolished. The 
present generation can hardly appreciate either side of the argu- 
ment. The assaults made upon the system as inquisitorial are in 
direct variance with the fact that it has been generally insisted on 
as a safeguard against official oppressions. The average American 
freeholder is not the stuti" inquisitors are made of. It is certainly 
a questionable policy which makes the prosecution of criminals 
depend upon the will of a single Justice of the Peace and a Prose- 
cuting Attorney. In many cases it probably is not of much 
importance. But experience has shown that there are some 
classes of crimes and some classes of criminals against which the 
public itself requires the aid of the substantial and fearless 
tribunal of accusation. There are powerful single and banded 
criminals against whom injured parties are afraid to complain 
before a magistrate, and who are known in every large community 
to count on their immunity from prosecution. Crimes against the 
election laws, which are the most dangerous of all in their public 
tendency, are of very frequent occurrence, and are very seldom 



132 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

complained of. The inefficiency of such grand juries as are now 
and then suninKnied is chiefly due to their inexperience. If the 
law required them to be summoned often enough to make their 
duties familiar, they would be a very great help to putting down 
crime, and inspire a wholesome caution in presumptuous wrong- 
doers. 

The provision which allows cases to be heard by judges without 
juries, whei'e parties do not choose to call them, has never been 
complained of. There are many cases where a jury would be of 
no service. The right to demand one ought never to be denied, 
and there are cases where the intervention of a body of ordinary 
men dealing only with facts is essential to justice. 

There is one constitutional provision which has never been car- 
ried out, and which deserves serious consideration. That is the 
provision which declares that " the Legislature may establish 
courts of conciliation with such powers and duties as shall be 
prescribed by law." It seems to have been supposed that so long 
as parties can arbitrate they need no other friendly tribunal. But 
where courts of conciliation exist it may be and frequently is 
made obligatory to resort to them in the first instance, even if par- 
ties should not be absolutely bound thereafter to abstain from fur- 
ther litigating; and a fair decision once made will have an eflect 
in bringing parties to reason. 

Those who have watched the course and causes of litigation 
know that a great share of it arises from misunderstanding. This 
is particularly so in matters arising out of agreements, and larger 
or smaller business relations. We do not ap})reciate the fact that 
while no rule of law can have more than one true meaning it is not 
only possible but common for men to enter upon business relations 
with each other without having in their minds any complete identity 
of understanding. While courts and the State cannot under ordi- 
nary cirumstances release any one from the obligation of informing 
himself what the law is, yet in law, as in all other sciences, the defini- 
tions are apt to be understood in the light of previous impressions 
upon the meaning of words and phrases, and the same maxim 
does not present the same idea to all minds. The most important 
advantage of the jury system is that juries understand and apply 
rules as they are commonly understood by the mass of society, and 
so harmonize legal obligations with the general sense of mankind. 
The beauty of the common law is that it is not abstract, but is 



ADDRESS OF lloN. .IA>[i:s V. ('A>ri'l*.KI,I,. 133 

found iu practical applications of right and duty. In a simple state 
of society there are very few things which all intelligent persons 
do not understand far enough to escape serious peril. But with 
the advances and changes of society it very often happens that men 
become separated in their habits and dealings, so that while famil- 
iar with their own surroundings they know little of what is done 
by those iu other pursuits. The landsman knows nothing of sea- 
faring business. The farmer knows nothing of mines and not very 
much of complicated manufacturing industries. The mutual rights 
and duties of those engaged in one calling can seldom be exactly 
the same as those relating to others. The great fundamental prin- 
ciple that the duty owed by one to another usually must be deter- 
mined by circumstances as they ap})ear at the time, can never be 
perfectly applied except by those who ai)preciate the full weight of 
the surroundings and the habits that have grown up in reliance 
upon them. Courts and juries with all their care and diligence 
must often fail to understand what is not within their experience, 
and abstract justice is not always actual justice. 

It has been very comuKm in all times to have within larije 
organizations for labor or business purposes, domestic tribunals 
for settling difficulties upon equitable principles without delay or 
expense. Both of these are important considerations. Unsettled 
controversies may keep interests at a standstill to the damage of 
all concerned. Delays, too, have a bad effect in keeping parties 
asunder and aggravating ill-feeling. It is also a good feature of 
these informal tribunals that parties can make their own showing 
and explanations in their own way, while the experienced arbiters 
understand just where explanation is needed. But the great 
advantage lies in their ability to look at things substantially as 
the parties do. In mining countries courts have always existed 
which acted upon the peculiar customs of the business, where con- 
tracts and rights depart considerably from those found elsewhere. 
Similar diversities have been found to make a customary law in 
many other cases. 

The necessity for suc^h a remedy has been found most commonly 
where numbers of peoj)le have similar interests or employments. 
It has existed in France for a long time, and has been applied to 
several classes of eases. The members of these tribunals are 
there called Prud'hommes (men of experimental knowledge). As 
long ago as the time of Philip the Fair, in the thirteenth century, 



134 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

a council of twenty-four Prud'hommes was formed to decide con- 
troversies between manufacturers and traders dealing in their 
wares. The first French Republic created similar boards to dis- 
pose of the ordinary diflferences between masters and workmen or 
apprentices. In 1806 provision was made in like manner for the 
important manufacturing city of Lyons, with powers to extend it 
to other industrial towns. Several of these bodies were organized 
in Paris from 1844 to 1848, for metalworkers, weavers, chemical 
works and builders. The maritime towns have for a great while 
without legislation had such tribunals among the fishermen. The 
modern French councils are said to be composed of representa- 
tives of employers and employed, chosen by their own orders. 
One third go out of oflace annually. Their duties are confined to 
questions relating to the business. The old fishery boards are 
supposed to have suggested the others, and are said to have been 
first known in the southern ports. It is quite likely they were 
regulated by the ancient sea laws. These arrangements, with 
perhaps some variations, seem to be regarded as desirable. 

Analogous bodies are found in other countries. They are 
thought to be better and more satisfactory than temporary and 
voluntary arbitrations, and experience in the diflSculties and 
grounds of difference among particular classes is of great value in 
enabling them to decide fairly. The effect of the permanent 
reference committees in our Boards of Trade in preventing com- 
mercial litigation in the courts of this State has been very 
marked. 

Courts of conciliation properly organized to settle the differences 
of employers and employed could hardly fail to remove any 
rational cause of complaint of unfairness in their mutual relations, 
and would have the double value of doing justice and of putting 
captious persons in the wrong. Sympathy would be given where 
it is deserved, and the common sense of the community would 
justify witiiholding it where it is not deserved. When public 
sentiment knows where justice lies it will not be profitable to pro- 
voke it. 

With this exception the Constitution has been fairly carried 
out, in regulating judicial affairs. Unlike the previous constitu- 
tion, it named all the classes of courts in which the judicial power 
should be vested, and in most cases left no authority to the Legis- 
lature to put it elsewhere. It also does what was not done before 



ADDRESS OK IION. .l.\^rES V. CAMPHELr,. 135 

in strictly dividing tlie judicial power from all others, and in con- 
fining its exercise to courts. Many of our old statutes paid small 
regard to this important consideration. Although with some 
formal differences, the jurisdiction over causes was left very nmch 
as before. The State was divided into eight circuits, subject to 
change and increase, and the Circuit judges were to be elected in 
their Districts for the terms of six years. They were to sit singly 
without associates at the Circuit, and together in the Supreme 
Court as before, until a separate Supreme Court should be pro- 
vided for by election from the State at large, for terras of eight 
years, to consist of four judges. Municipal courts could be created 
in cities, and the Upper Peninsula was for a time to be a separate 
District, from which ultimately circuits could be made or enlarged. 
All of the Upper Peninsula counties are now in circuits. Munici- 
pal courts, civil and criminal, were created in Detroit many years 
ago, and now exist in several cities. The number of circuits is now 
twenty-eight, so that, including the city courts, the number of 
judges presiding in common-law courts of record is four times as 
great as in 1851. Business has multiplied, and for the last ten 
years there has been a perceptible increase in the prolixity of 
important trials. It would be difficult to determine the causes of 
this unfortunate tendency with any sort of unanimity. 

Since 1851 there has been ;ui important change in the law of 
testimony. The connnon-law rules excluding witnesses for interest 
or for bad character were pretty much done away under the laws 
passed while the first constitution was in force. In 1-S61 all per- 
sonal discjualitications were abolished, and parties were made com- 
petent. Some rules made to preserve confidence inviolate to 
families and with professional advisers were wisely preserved. 
There is more reason to doubt the wisdom of the rule excluding a 
survivor from testifying where other parties have died. The 
legislative tendency is to keep up and emphasize this distinction, 
and rather to favor than qualify it. 

One class of laws has given occasion for much contention. 
There is too little uniformity, and too frequent change in the laws 
which regulate the condemnation of property for various ease- 
ments and corporate uses. Few of the statutes contain specific 
provisions for compensating owners for property jiractically 
destroyed in value, but not appropriated bodily, and in some 
cases, under the pretext of benefits, they take it away without 



136 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

any compensation at all. The power is one very necessary, but 
justice requires that one part of the State should not have different 
laws from other parts, and that property should not be disturbed 
without plain necessity, or confiscated without recompense. Muni- 
cipal condemnations have made the most trouble in this way. 

It is worth considering whether litigation is not too much 
encouraged by our system by imposing no restriction on appellate 
proceedings. No one doubts the importance of giving to every 
one legal protection and redress. But where from the nature of 
things the cost of controversy will go beyond any possible gain 
from it, there is much harm done by continued litigation. If 
small cases, involving no important principle, have once been 
fairly tried, any further pursuit tends only to injure the public 
tranquility and burden the public treasury as well as the means 
of the litigants. Persons of small means are often injured and 
sometimes ruined by prolonged legal action, and whether right or 
wrong they can do very little against a wealthier opponent who 
will not be seriously hurt, though defeated on appeal. There are 
small cases which represent important principles that should be 
settled by courts of last resort. Such cases can be easily provided 
for by requiring leave to appeal, which is always done in cases of 
certiorari. The courts are now driven to extremity to keep up 
with their business, and if it once gets beyond their power to hear 
and decide speedily, and the door is still left open for indiscrimi- 
nate appeals, cases will be, as they have elsewhere been, carried 
up for delay and vexation until deliverance is hopeless. It was 
supposed when the Constitution allowed justices of the peace to 
take jurisdiction up to $300, and in some cases up to $500, that 
the circuits would be relieved. But nearly all cases are appealed 
if the parties can afford to appeal them, and a large amount of 
Circuit anil Supreme Court business comes up from justices. 

When the Constitution of 1850 went into effect, and the Circuit 
Judges and District Judge of the Upper Peninsula were first 
elected, all of the existing Judges of the Supreme Court were chosen 
as Circuit Judges, and Judge Goodwin, a former member of that 
Court, was elected for the Upper Peninsula. Judge Sanford M, 
Green, the reviser of 1846, and Judge of the Supreme Court 
under the old Constitution, still presides at the Circuit, and still 
retains undiminished respect and confidence. Samuel T. Doug- 
lass and David Johnson are the remaining survivors of the first 



ADDRESS OF IKtN. .lA^UKS V. CAMI'BEI.L. 187 

bench of Circuit Judges, which was made up of very able and 
excellent jurists. Five of them resigned during their term to 
return to practice. Many clianges have been made since on the 
Circuit bench and most of them for the same reason. Tlie State 
has been very well served by its Circuit Courts. 

The Supreme Court, as now organized of judges having only 
appellate duties, was provided for l)y the Legislature of i8.")7, and 
sat first in January, 1858. George Martin of the old bench was 
Chief Justice and Randolph Manning (former Chancellor), Isaac 
P. Christiancy and James V. Campbell associates. Judge Man- 
ning died in 1864 and was succeeded by Thomas M. Cooley who 
resigned in 188.') and was succeeded by Allan B. Morse, now in 
office. Judge Martin died in 1867 and was succeeded by Benja- 
min F. Graves (who had been chosen to the Circuit bench in 
1857) who retired at his own desire at the end of his term and 
was succeeded by John W. Champlin of the present bench. 
Judge Christiancy was elected United States Senator in 1<'S75. 
Isaac IVIarston succeeded him and continued in office till March 
1883, when he resigned and Thomas F^. Sherwood, the present 
incumbent, was elected in his place. 

During the existence of the State, which finished its half cen- 
tury of judicial experience on the fourth day of July, 1886, 
there has been nothing striking or startling in its court records. 
No judge has been removed from office or convicted of miscon- 
duct. No capital sentence has been pronounced or carried out. 
No person has been tried for a political offence. No court has 
been prevented by violence from enforcing its orders. Few con- 
spiracies to do mischief on a large scale have created local, and 
none general, disturbance. The four years of war, in which our 
citizens played a heroic part, left no legacy of disorder, and 
returned soldiers have been the best guards of law and order, and 
have filled and are filling the most responsible offices of peace, 
and have shared liberally in the administration of justice. It is 
perhaps one of the most comfortable assurances of public pros- 
perity that our long judicial history is uneventful. 



138 Michigan's semi-centennial. 



EVENING SESSION— HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

Mr. Chamberlain : 

Having heard the interesting and valuable papers on the Fair 
Grounds, we have again assembled here to hear the concluding 
speeches. It is fortunate that the gentlemen who have been as- 
signed to this hall are all so eminent in their professions and so 
well known to the people of this State as not to need any intro- 
duction. 

I present James B. Angell, President of the University of 
Michigan, that crowning glory of our educational system. 

THE UNIVERSITY. 

By president ANGELL. 

It is fitting that the University should have a place and a voice 
in the commemoration services of this day. For her birth was 
almost simultaneous with that of the State. In a few months she 
is to celebrate the completion of the first half-century of her exist- 
ence. Four months after Congress recognized the State as a 
member of the Federal Union, the first board of regents met and 
began the organization of the University in its present form. 
From that time the life of the University has been a conspicuous 
and an integral part of the life of the State. 

But in a certain and a very just sense both the State and the 
University have a common origin, which antedates by nearly half 
a century the event which we are celebrating to-day. In that 
great instrument, the Ordinance of 1787, with which the declara- 
tion of independence, the Constitution of the United States and 
the emancipation proclamation alone of our great historical 
instruments deserves to be compared, lie coiled together the germ 
of the States and the germ of all our educational institutions. 
We cannot too often or too gratefully recall the fact that the 
Ordinance of '87, while providing that five States might ulti- 
mately be carved out of the Northwestern territory, also provided 
that slavery should never plant its accursed foot in this great 
domain, and declared in words that might well be blazoned on 
the capitols of the five States, "religion, morality, and knowledge 
being necessary to good government and the happiness of man- 



ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ANGELL. 139 

kind, schools aiul tlie means of education shall forever be encour- 
ged ." Mark that sublime imperative, "shall forever be encour- 
aged." In these memorable words lies the gerra of our free 
schools. I say the free schools with the University, because they 
are virtually parts of the same system, and the schools and the 
University are each incomplete without the other. Both received 
from Congress, acting in the spirit of the Ordinance, gifts of land 
for their support. It was only a fortnight after the Ordinance 
was ad()[)ted that appro{)riations of lands were made for the Uni- 
versity and schools, and from that time to this the excellent 
example then set has been followed in the admission of new 
States. 

By the act of March 26, 1804, disposing of lands in what was 
then the Territory of Indiana, a township was reserved for a 
seminary of learning in each of the three divisions of the Terri- 
tory, one of which became in l(S05the Territory of Michigan, and 
so received the grant. 

It is a very interesting fact that the Indians who occupied this 
region were early contributors to the fund for endowing the Univer- 
sity. By the treaty which Gov. Cass and Gen. McArthur nego- 
tiated with the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottavvatamies, at Fort 
Meigs, September 29, 1817, the Indians granted six sections of 
land to be equally divided between the church of Ste. Anne at 
Detroit and the college at Detroit. Judge Cooley well says in his 
History of Michigan : " The gift was fully equal in positive value 
and j)r()spectively superior to the gifts for like purposes which 
maile John Harvard and Elihu Yale immortal, and quite as justly 
entitles Pontagini and his associate chieftains to grateful remem- 
brance among the founders of colleges." 

The college of Detroit, which was to share in this grant, was 
not in existence when the treaty was made, but was established a 
month later as a part of the Catliolepistemiad or University of 
Micliigania, which had been chartered in the previous August. 
The act providing for the institution with this extraordinary title 
was drafted by Mr. Augustus B. Woodward, one of the judges of 
the territorial court. The strange and })edantic language in which 
the act describes the proposed organization of the University, may 
conceal at first glance the broad and scholarly conception which 
was in the mind of its author. It contemplates imparting instruc- 
tion in nearly all branches of learning and gave the University 



14t» Michigan's semi centennial. 

authorities the direction of the subordinate schools throughout 
the Territory, There seems ground for the suggestion of Prof. 
Tenbrook that the plan of the University of France may have 
been brought to the attention of Judge Woodward by some of the 
French residents, and have served him to some degree as his guide 
in maturing his scheme. All the subsequent developments of the 
University down to this day have been on the lines which this 
eccentric man marked out. In his large provision for the support 
of the institution, he quite exceeded what either Territory or State 
has ever done, since he required in his act that a tax of 15 per 
cent, should be levied for its maintenance, and also that 15 per 
cent, of the proceeds of four lotteries should be appropriated to it. 

In 1821, the act establishing the Catholepistemiad was revised. 
The University was styled the University of Michigan, the trus- 
tees were authorized to establish preparatory schools, and religious 
tests for officers and students were prohibited. 

In 1824, patents for the three sections of land granted by the 
Indians were issued. A serious obstacle was encountered in the 
attempt to locate lands under the Congressional act of 1804. The 
act required that the Indian title to the lands to be selected should 
have been extinguished. It was difficult, if not impossible, to 
find a township Avhere the Indian titles had been entirely can- 
celled. This fact being made known to Congress, that body, in 
1826, allowed the trustees to select lands equal in amount to 
twice the original grant. Thus the total grant of lands to the 
University was equal to two townshij)s and three sections. 

The deep interest of the people in education was plainly evinced 
in the Constitution of 1835, whicli provided for schools, agricul- 
tural and scientific education, libraries and the University, and 
the appointment of a superintendent of public instruction. For- 
tunately for the State and for the University, the Rev. John D. 
Pierce was selected for this position of superintendent. A gradu- 
ate of Brown University, he had made an intelligent study of the 
Prussian system of education, then without doubt the best in the 
world. He proposed at once a most wise and generous plan of 
organization of the University. It should have three departments, 
one of literature, science and the arts ; one of medicine and one of 
law. It was to be entirely unsectarian ; only $10 was to be 
charged to Michigan students for an admission fee and no fee was 
to be asked for tuition. Twelve regents were to be appointed by 
the Governor. These, with the Lieut. Governor and Judges of 



ADDRESS OF I'KKSIDENT ANdELL. 141 

the Supreme Court, were to constitute the board. He ^suggested a 
most judicious phiu for the disposition of the hvud. Had it been 
adliered to it i.s probable that the proceeds of tiie sales would 
have ultimately yielded nearly a million dollars as an endowment, 
or nearly twice as much as has been received from them. Time 
will not suffice for setting out in detail the various steps by w^hich 
successive legislatures interfered with the execution of the original 
plan to the great detriment of the University treasury ; though we 
must not omit to acknowledge our indebtedness to Gov. Mason, 
who once courageously interposed his veto of a bill that would 
have robbed us of a large part of our endowment. Worthily does 
his portrait adorn the walls of the University, where his name 
must ever be held in grateful remembrance. But in spite of such 
unwise management of the lands, it is but just to say that no 
other of the five States out of the Northwest territory realized half 
as much per acre from its University lands as Michigan did. The 
lands are all sold except a few acres, and the fund is now about 
-$550,000, yielding annually to the IJniversity treasury about 
$38,500. 

The newly appointed board of regents was organized early in 
1837, and at once addressed itself to the work of starting the 
University on the plan proposed by Mr. Pierce. But first they 
decided to establish eight branches or academies in ditterent parts 
of the State. These schools rendered a valuable service, but after 
a few years the regents withdrew their support from them and the 
high school took iij) the work for which the branches had been 
instituted. 

The board promptly took steps to make a beginning in collect- 
ing a library and scientific specimens and apparatus. A libra- 
rian was appointed. Dr. Asa Gray, who has since become so 
renowned as a botanist, was in 1838 appointed professor of botany 
and zoology and was sent to Europe to purchase §5,000 worth 
of books, the beginning of the library which now numbers nearly 
58,000 volumes. Ikiildings were begun. By the autumn of 1841 
four dwelling houses i'or jjrofessors and one structure to be used 
for a dormitory and for recitation rooms (now the north wing of 
the main buildinu) were completed. It should not be overlooked 
that Superintendent Pierce wisely used the veto power lodged in 
him to prevent squandering a large sum, half a million or more, 
he says, on a large university building. 



142 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

In 1841 the first class entered. The first student who presented 
himself is still living and busily engaged in professional life. The 
professor who received him, the venerable Dr. Williams, died only 
five years ago. The faculty who filled the chairs of instruction 
was a strong one, and is remembered with grateful appreciation 
by the graduates of the first ten years. But the classes were not 
large. 

The purpose of establishing professional schools was never lost 
sight of, and in the autumn of 1850 the medical department began 
its work with a class of ninety in a building which had been 
originally designed for a chemical laboratory. The number of 
medical students rapidly increased, and the growth of the medical 
department has subsequently, as well as that of the law depart- 
ment, contributed to increase the attendance in the literary de- 
partment. By the wide range and thoroughness of its instruction, 
and the size of its classes, the medical school early won and has 
held its place in the very front rank of such colleges. 

In 1851 the State adopted a new Constitution wliich provided 
that the regents should be elected by popular vote, and should 
have entire control of the University and its funds with freedom 
from legislative dictation. The new board which came into office 
Jan. 1, 1852, at once proceeded to look for a president. Hereto- 
fore the executive duties had been discharged by professors acting 
each for a single year. August 12, 1852, Dr. Henry P. Tappan 
was chosen president. With his succession to office began a new 
career for the University. He was familiar with the best methods 
of higher education, both American and European, and was an 
enthusiastic admirer of the Prussian system. He had broad cul- 
ture, generous views of university work, and the power of kindling 
enthusiasm in others. By his public addresses he soon awoke in 
the State a new interest in the University, while at the same 
time he broadened and improved the organization of the institu- 
tion. He departed boldly from the old traditional customs of 
American colleges by establishing a scientific course to be parallel 
to the classical course, and to be treated with the same honor. 
Meantime he strengthened the classical course by calling in those 
eminent scholars, Profs. Boise and Frieze, to fill the chairs of 
Greek and Latin. Ho opposed making appointments on denomina- 
tional grounds, but steadfastly looked for merit and character 
alone in judging of candidates for chairs. Largely through his 



ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ANGELL. 143 

personal efforts the astrouoiuical observatory and its instruments 
were secured by the generosity, in large part, of citizens of Detroit, 
and especially the late Henry X.Walker. It was during his admin- 
istration, in 18o9, that the law school was established, with James 
V. Campbell, Thomas M. Cooley and C. I. Walker as professors. 

It is not necessary to say that those eminent teachers quickly 
drew large classes to receive their instruction. In 18(55 a new 
building was erected for the new department. During President 
Tappan's term of service of eleven years the total attendance of 
students increased from 222 to 652. Under his inspiring guidance 
the University was fairly started upon the paths in which it has 
ever since advanced and was thoroughly imbued with the sj)irit 
which has secured its remarkable success. 

In 1863 the Rev. Dr. E. O. Haven succeeded Dr. Tappan in 
the presidency under circumstances which threatened to make his 
labors disagreeable and difficult. But his tact and skill and 
happy temperament soon smoothed his way and rendered his 
administration very serviceable. In 18U6au unsuccessful attempt 
was made to introduce instruction in homeopathic medicine into 
the University. In 1809 the Legislature gave to the institution 
for two years an appropriation of ^15,500 a year, furnishing a 
help which was so sorely needed by the rapidly growing Uni- 
versity. During the six years of Dr. Haven's ])residency several 
new courses of instruction were set up and the number of students 
increased to over eleven hundred. 

After his resignation in 1869, which wa.>< universally regretted, 
Dr. Henry S. Frieze was acting president for two years. In these 
years, under his able administration, some very important steps 
were taken. In 1870 women were admitted to all departments of 
the University. This action was in harmony with the public 
opinion in the State rather than in the University. But experi- 
ence has so demonstrated the wisdom of it that both officers and 
students in the University are now grateful that it was taken. In 
1871 the University also set up that intimate and friendly relation 
with the high schools, by virtue of which the graduates from 
approved schools are received without examination. This has 
been of the greatest service, it is believed, both to the University 
and the high schools, and the system has been widely adopted in 
other States. It was in 1871 also that the Legislature granted 
S75,000 for the erection of a university hail. 



144 Michigan's semi-cejstennial. 

In 1871 the present incumbent of the office of president relieved 
Dr. Frieze. In 1873 the Legislature substituted for the annual 
appropriation of $15,500, a twentieth mill tax on all the ratable 
property of the State, which yielded about $31,000, and which 
yields now $40,500. The same Legislature also provided the 
means for establishing a homeopathic medical college, a hos- 
pital, a supply of water for the grounds, and for meeting obliga- 
tions which had been incurred in enlarging buildings. In 1875 
the dental college was established by the aid of an appropriation 
from the Legislature. In 1876 the school of pharmacy, which 
had virtually existed for eight years as a part of the library 
department, received a distinct organization. In 1880 a spacious 
building for which an appropriation by the State of l?40,000 was 
made, was erected to hold our scientific collections. In 1^81 the 
Legislature generously gave i)100,000 to construct a fire-proof 
library building and art gallery. In 1885 the sum of $15,000 
was voted for the erection of a shop or laboratory in which our 
engineering students may familiarize themselves with mechanical 
processes. Of late years important improvements have been made 
in the courses of study in the different departments. During the 
last fifteen years minor apjjropriations for various objects have 
also been made. In the literary department a very large liberty 
of choice of studies is left to the pupil. The terms in the profes- 
sional schools have been lengthened from six to nine months, and 
in the medical schools have been extended to three years. The 
number of instructors is now seventy. Some years the total 
attendance of students has exceeded 1,500, and has been much 
larger than that of any university in the land. Its constituency 
is not only national, but cosmopolitan, as it draws its students 
from all the States and Territories in the United States and from 
every continent of the globe. 

In addition to the generous approprations which successive 
Legislatures now for years have made to aid the University, she 
has received the beuefits of private liberality. Not to mention 
many minor benefactions, we may well recall the following very 
large gifts, viz. : Ran library and constant additions to it by Philo 
Parsons, the McMillan Shakespearean library by James McMillan, 
the Buhl law lil)rary by C. H. Buhl, the peal of bells by A. D. 
White, J. J. liagerman^and E. C. Hegeer, an anonymous gift of 
books worth $2,500 to the political science library, the Lewis col- 



ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ANGELL. 145 

lection of works of art, bequeathed by the late Henry C. Lewis, 
and valued at more than 8200,000, and the Rogers collection of 
statuary, presented by Randolph Rogers, the eminent sculptor, 
and valued at about $200,000, the Chinese exhibit displayed at 
the New Orleans exposition and presented by the Chinese govern- 
ment, and the Goethe library which our German friends are now 
gathering. It would seem, therefore, that not only has the State 
settled finally upon the policy of meeting the most pressing needs 
of the University, but that large personal benefactions may be 
expected in the future. 

I have thus given a rapid and brief sketch of the origin and 
development of the University. Its growth is, we may confidently 
say, without a pai-allel in the history of American universities. 
Its name is spoken with honor wherever American scholarship is 
known. It has long had in its faculties professors whose fame has 
circled the globe. It has done its full part in making the name 
and fame of Michigan familiar to the world. And looking back 
to-day on the proud history of the State, shall we say that the 
fathers erred in laying deep and broad the foundations of the Uni- 
versity? Does not rather their work stand as a monument to their 
wisdom and foresiglit? They not only secured almost without cost 
a generous education for their own children, but they saved at least 
three generations of educated men to Michigan. They made 
certain at an early day the collections of museums and libra- 
ries, which could probably not have been gathered in a century 
through private generosity. Nor can it be questioned that the 
University has exerted a most powerful, elevating and stimulating 
influence upon the public schools and especially u|)on the high 
schools of the State. It has attracted a large number of men of 
high intelligence and character from other States who, after com- 
pleting their studies, have remained to strengthen and enrich this 
State with useful lives. The power and influence of the Univer- 
sity have been felt throughout the length and breadth of the State, 
nay, throughout the whole nation and in many a foreign land. 

Now what has been the total cost to the State of all these great 
results which have been achieved by the University during the 
half century of its existence? The State has in all appropriated 
from its own treasury 5! 1, 024, 071, and it has now actually in its 
possession at Ann Arbor, buildings, libraries, apparatus, land and 
other property valued on a moderate appraisal at about $900,010. 
k 10 



146 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Really the outlay over aud above the material objects which have 
been purchased with it aud which the State now holds is about 
1125,000. In other words the absolute cost to the State for fifty 
years has been on au average about $2,500 a year. But more- 
over, if we reckon the value of the gifts which have been made to 
the University, in works of art which may, I think, be set down at 
about $400,000, it appears that the State now holds property at 
the University worth nearly $300,000 more than the entire sum 
that the University has received from the appropriations by the 
State. It may be doubted whether the history of higher educa- 
tion anywhere presents a parallel to this achievement. 

Well may we cherish tlie memory of the fathers who so wisely 
laid at once the foundations of the State and the University, aud 
of those who so wisely builded on the foundations so well laid. 
The State and the University ! As God has so constantly re- 
freshed aud strengthened them with the dews of His grace, and 
has enabled them to add to the prosperity and glory of each other, 
so may He ever continue to multiply His blessings on them both ! 



Mr. Chamberlain : 

The Commission selected ex-Senator Charles E. Stuart, and as 
his alternate ex -Congressman Augustus C. Baldwin, to prepare a 
paper on the Senators and Representatives in Congress from 
Michigan. 

Senator Stuart's feeble health compelled him to decline. Mr. 
Baldwin accepted, but a sudden and serious, though temporary 
sickness, prevented him from preparing the paper. Within a few 
days, ex-Congressman Roswell G. Horr was asked aud consented 
to make such remarks on this subject as the limited time would 
permit him to do. 

Ladies and gentlemen : Hon. Roswell G. Horr. 

MICHIGAN IN CONGRESS. 

Hon. R G. HORR. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I am called upon here to-night to 
talk to you for a few moments upon the career of Michigan for 
the past fifty years in the Congress of the United States. In 
justice to myself you will permit me to say that I perform this 



ADDRESS OF HON. ROSWELL G. IIORR. 147 

duty not as a "regular recruit," but rather as a " drafted volun- 
teer." This work was to have been done by another, a man of 
long residence and distinguished public service in this State, but 
unavoidable circumstances prevent him from performing the task. 
Our Governor upon learning this, only three days aijo, with that 
modesty for which he is so justly noted, ordered me peremptorily 
to take my place in the ranks. 

I am not sure, however, that this short notice will not after all 
conduce to your comfort and convenience, for while you may get 
less of "Michigan in Congress for the last fifty years" than 
seems desirable on such an occasion as this, still you will get 
compensation for the loss right here on the sj)ot, by getting fifty 
minutes less of me ! 

From 1836 to 1843 the State of Michigan had but one repre- 
sentative in the lower house of Congress. From 1843 to 1853 
she had three members. From 1853 to 1803 she had four mem- 
bers. From 1863 to 1873 she had six members. From 1873 to 
1883 she had nine members. Since < 1883 she has had eleven 
members of Congress. Nothing more strikingly sets forth her 
growth as a State than the fact than in fifty years slie has 
increased her representation in Congress from one member to 
eleven, notwithstanding that in 1836 every 60,000 inhabitants 
entitled a State to one representative, while now it takes over 
150,000 people for each member of Congress. 

Since the admission of Michigan as a State sixteen difierent 
men have represented her in the Senate of the United States, and 
she has had seventy-six difierent men in the lower house of Con- 
gress, but six of these, to wit : Lucius Lyon, Charles E. Stuart, 
Kinsley S. Bingham, Jacob M. Howard, Thomas W. Ferry and 
Omar D. Conger are also included in the list of Senators, having 
served in both branches of the National Legislature. 

Such is the transitory nature of tame, that I doubt if there are 
a score of men in this large audience who can give the names of 
our first two United States Senators — a few of the oldest men 
here may be able to do so from their memory of those early times. 
To be frank with you, I had not the slightest idea until I had 
looked them u]), and when I found out, to my chagrin I had no 
recollection of having ever before heard tlie name of either of 
them. Lucius Lyon and John Norvill were the first Senators 
from Michigan in the American Congress. Of her sixteen Sena- 



148 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

tors seveu of them are still living. Her sixth Senator and fifth 
Governor, Alpheus Felch, is not only alive, but hale and strong, 
so that he is able to be with us on this anniversary occasion. 
Few men have ever lived through such a fifty years of the world's 
growth and been in active, working manhood during the entire 
half century. 

The first Representative in Congress Irom Michigan was Gen. 
Isaac E. Crary. He represented the State for six years, having 
been elected three successive times. He became quite famous in 
his day on account of his encounter with Hon. Thomas Corwiu of 
Ohio. Political excitement ran very high during his Congres- 
sional career, which included the wonderful Harrison campaign 
of "log cabins and hard cider" in 1840. Gen. Crary took it 
upon himself to criticize the military ability and career of the 
Whig candidate for Presidency, Gen. Harrison, and unfortunate- 
ly for himself referred to his own experience as an officer of the 
militia which he claimed gave him a right to speak upon military 
matters, and enable him to intelligently criticise the exploits of 
the hero of Tippecanoe. 

He was followed by Thomas Corwin, in one of his most inimita- 
ble speeches. Such a combination of wit, ridicule and sarcasm, 
dressed up with classical allusions and sparkling sentences, can 
hardly be found elsewhere in the English language. It has since 
found its way into works on elocution and rhetoric and will be 
recited by students of literature for ages yet to come. So com- 
plete and telling was it, that a few days afterwards, John Quincy 
Adams, " the old man eloquent," referred to our unfortunate 
member as " the late Gen. Crary of Michigan." 

Notwithstanding this mishap, I am told by men who knew him, 
that Gen. Crary was a man of excellent parts, and that to no one 
man are we more indebted for our present magnificent common 
school system, than to this general of our State militia. He was 
followed by Jacob M. Howard, who alone represented Michigan 
on the floor of the House in the 27th Congress, and who after- 
wards became a very able and successful member of the United 
States Senate. 

Of our sixteen Senators all of them have been able, painstak- 
ing legislators, and two of them have reached positions of great 
national renown. 

It makes little difference who might be giving the history I am 



ADDRESS OF HON. ROSWELL G. HORR. 149 

now attempting ; it matters not to what political party he might 
belong, the names of Lewis Cass and Zachariah Chandler would 
head his list of Michigan statesmen. And yet no two men were 
ever more unlike in their natural gifts and personal attainments. 
Lewis Cass was a cultivated scholar, an able lawyer, an experienced 
diplomatist, a consummate debater and a polished statesman. He 
is the only man from our State who was ever selected as the 
standard bearer of his party for Presidential honors. True he 
was defeated, but we must not conclude on that account that he 
was unworthy, because, Mr. President (Henry Chamberlain), you 
and I know that most excellent men are not always successful at 
the polls? Mr. Chandler was not a lawyer, was not a scholar, 
had no experience abroad in diplotnacy, seldom took part in 
debates, and yet he won great distinction as a patriot and success- 
ful party leader. 

Like General Grant, his crowning intellectual trait was his rare 
common sense. In a knowledge of practical things he was 
immense. He was at home in the vernacular of the common peo- 
ple, knew how to call things by their riglit names; and add to 
that his rugged courage and one can readily see what made him 
a natural leader among men. His short, pointed speeches always 
seemed to supply a deep-seated want. Like Abraham Lincoln, 
his masterpiece in speech-making was hardly ten minutes long, 
and yet in its way it will always be looked upon as a model, as a 
classic. 

Gov. Woodbridge and Jacob M. Howard were both able men, 
in some respects the superior of Mr. Chandler, and in others the 
equal of Lewis Cass, and yet neither of them won any such place 
in the annals of this country as will be accorded to Cass and 
Chandler. These two men seem to have been born for exactly 
the times in which each one lived, and each of them (li<l his life- 
work well. 

1 have sometimes thought that members of Congress may be 
divided into three grades or classes. A large number of men 
who find their way to the National Legislature, do little except it 
be to look after the wants of their immediate districts and per- 
haps the interests of their several States. They are careful, pains- 
taking, often able men, who are satisfied with such limited work 
and intiueuce. To this class belong the majority of men who 
have been in Congress from all the States of this Union, and of 
course Michigan is no exceptiou to this general rule. 



150 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Another class of Congressmen is composed of men who not only 
attend to the affairs of their own districts and States, but who also 
take an active part in national matters, men \vho help to shape the 
general legislation of the couutr}', men who acquire national repu- 
tations and would always be mentioned as among the foremost 
men of the House. For a new State, Michigan has had her full 
share of such legislators, but no one would expect me to single 
out and name them. It would be a little hazardous for any one 
to attempt the job, and especially dangerous for a man who has 
acted in the capacity of a legislator himself, and so would be com- 
pelled to sit in judgment on his fellow members and to state con- 
clusions as to the capacity and standing of his warmest friends. 
Then again there is a still smaller class of Congressmen, who become 
leaders of men, who will go into the history of our country as the 
men who had the ability to originate great measures and the tact 
and courage to defend them, men who combine large brain power 
with a genius for practical politics, such men shape the policy of 
parties and contribute much to the weal or woe of the nation. 
The United States in its 110 years of existence has furnished quite a 
long roll of these able men, but our State in its fifty years can boast 
of very few of them — I mean such men as Henry Clay, John C. 
Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Stephen A. Douglass, Thaddeus Stevens, 
Robert Schenk, James G. Blaine and James A. Garfield. 

No State need be ashamed of its Congressional record which 
has furnished to the House of Representatives such men as Robert 
McClelland, Charles E. Stuart, Wm. A. Howard, Austin Blair 
and Omar D. Conger, to say nothing of a long list of able mem- 
bers almost equally noted with those just named. Still very few 
of them all can be said to rank with the choice names mentioned 
a moment ago. Perhaps Wm. A. Howard may be included in 
that list. I well remember when a young man, during the fearful 
struggle for freedom in the then Territory of Kansas, that the 
name of Wm. A. Howard became almost a household word all 
over the North. He stood out as a central figure in that noted 
contest, and to his genius and courage, as much as to that of any 
one man, was due the grand outcome of that early battle for liberty 
and free territory in this country. 

So many of the men who have served our State so well and so 
ably during the last fifty years are still living among us that it 
would be embarrassing to select names as being especially deserv- 



ADDRESS OF HON. ROSWELL G. HORR. 151 

ing from among them. I do not j)ropose to enter upon any such 
undertaking. 

Among all our public nu;n one only has ever reached the 
position of Acting Vice-President of the I'nited States. During 
many months Hon. Thomas W. Ferry held that position by virtue 
of his election as President pro tempore of the Senate. He occu- 
pied that important place during the memorable contest which 
resulted in the Electoral Commission and wliich ended by placing 
Mr. Hayes in the Presidential chair. At that time the duties of 
the President of the Senate were very delicate and difficult. Mr. 
Ferry, however, passed through the heat and excitement of that 
trying hour with great firmness and signal ability, so much so 
that he won tlie approval of his political enemies and the confi- 
dence of his own pai'ty friends. 

Of the sixteen United States Senators only two of them were 
born on Michigan soil, Thomas W. Ferry and Thomas W. Pal- 
mer. Indeed, of her nineteen Governors David H. Jerome alone 
was born within our borders, and of the seventy-six different men 
who have been members of Congress from this State, only about a 
dozen of them are natives of Michigan and five of those are mem- 
bers of the present House. Such is of necessity the case in every 
new State. The political, social, religious and educational growth 
of all the younger States depends largely upon contributions from 
older ones, and Michigan was fortunate in receiving her early 
supplies, mostly from New England, New York, Pennsylvania and 
Ohio. Such is the character and mental make-up of the men who 
quit the crystallized society of the east and seek new homes in the 
wild west, that a new State gets old in all its institutions when it is 
very young in years. So it came about that Michigan, before she 
had finished cutting her teeth, could boast of having one of the 
finest Universities on this continent, and her common schools were 
looked upon as models even by the older States. All these things 
had a marked influence in moulding the character of her legisla- 
tors. Then again the physical geography of Michigan is such as 
to give her great prominence in some branches of legislation. She 
has by far the longest water coast of any State in the Union. Her 
harbors are most numerous. Her rivers, the Detroit, the St. Clair, 
the Soo and St. Mary's are of the greatest importance to the com- 
merce of the great west. Hence she has been more affected by our 
national system of internal improvements than has any other State 



152 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

in the Union. Again she produces many times as much copper as 
all the other States combined — is one of the foremost States in the 
production of iron, leads them all in the lumber product, and fur- 
nishes nearly one-third of all the salt consumed in the Union. 

In agriculture she holds a foremost place and is fast takings 
prominent position among the great wool-producing States. In 
such a commonwealth one can readily see that our members of 
the American Congress have had immense interests to look after 
and protect, and great national questions to study and understand. 
For the past fifty years Michigan men have aided largely in the 
legislation that has aided our harbors and opened up our great 
waterways for the benefit of the commerce of this country, and 
their voices have always been heard in favor of building up Ameri- 
can industries, protecting American labor, and making possible so 
many happy American homes. 

When the civil war broke out in this country be it said to the 
credit of our noble State that she was found solidly for the Union. 
During the entire war no Michigan member of either branch of the 
National Legislature ever cast a single vote which gave aid or even 
comfort to the enemy. Let it be remembered by us all with praise 
and thanksgiving that during that entire conflict every single vote 
given in the Congress of the United States by Michigan represen- 
tatives was given in favor of that Union we all so much cherish, 
in favor of that Constitution we all so much revei'e, and to sustain 
the flag we all so much love. 

Let us also feel proud of the fact that during all the dai-k days 
of that wicked rebellion, our good, kind-hearted President Lincoln 
leaned on the arm of no civilian with more confidence than he did 
upon the strong right arm of our own Senator Chandler. 

One hundred years is a short time in the life of a nation ; fifty 
years is but a little while in the life of a State. During this half 
century just closed we may not have produced as many brilliant 
men as some of the older States, but none of them have outstripped 
us in material growth, in the education of our people, in the pur- 
ity of our judges or in the integrity and fidelity of the men who 
have served us in our National Legislature. 

Three of our citizens have held Cabinet positions, Lewis Cass, 
Robert McClelland and Zachariah Chandler, and all of them so 
demeaned themselves as to reflect honor upon themselves and credit 
upon our State. Indeed up to the present date no member of the 



ADDRESS OF HON. ROSWELL G. HORR. 153 

House or Senate of the American Congress from Michigan has 
ever l)rought any reproach upon the good name of this State; and 
no national scanchil has ever been Laid at the door of a single one 
of our Congressmen. 

Let us then, my friends, hope that for fifty years to come our 
State may be represented in the great councils of the Nation by 
men equal in patriotism, equal in integrity, equal in business tact 
and equal in far-seeing statemanship to those who for fifty years 
past have so performed their important duties as to make all justly 
proud of our Peninsula State and right glad that our homes are in 
Michigan. 

The following is a list of the men who have served in the Senate 
of the United States, and in the House of Representatives from 
the State of Michigan during the first fifty years of her existence 
as a State : 

Senators of Michigan — Lucius Lyon, John Norvell, Augustus 
S. Porter, William Woodbridge, Lewis Cass, Alpheus Felch, 
Thomas Fitzgerald, Charles E. Stuart, Zachariah Cliandler, Kins- 
ley S. Bingham, Jacob M. Howard, Thomas W. Ferry, Isaac P. 
Christiancy, Henry P. Baldwin, Omar D. Conger, Thomas W. 
Palmer — 16. 

Representatives in Congress — Isaac E. Crary, Jacob M. Howard, 
James B. Hunt, Lucius Lyon, Robert McClelland, John S. Chip- 
man, Kinsley S. ijingham, Charles E. Stuart, Alexander W. 
Buel, William Sprague, James L. Conger, Ebenezer J. Penniman, 
Samuel Clark, David A. Noble, Hestor L. Stevens, David Stuart, 
William A. Howard, George W. Peck, David S. Walbridge, 
Henry Waldron, DeWitt C. Leach, George B. Cooper, Francis 
W. Kellogg, Fernando C. Beaman, Bradley F. Granger, Rowland 
E. Trowbridge, Augustus C. Baldwin, John F. Driggs, John W. 
Longyear, Charles Upson, Thomas W. Ferry, Austin Blair, Omar 
D. Conger, Wm. L. Stoughton, Randolph Strickland, Wilder D. 
Foster, Jabez G. Sutherland, Henry Waldron, Josiah W. Begole, 
Nathan B. Bradley, Julius C. Burrows, Moses W. Field, Jay A. 
Hubbell, George Willard, William B. Williams, George H. Dur- 
and, Allen Potter, Alpheus S. Williams, Mark S. Brewer, Charles 
C. Ellsworth, Edwin W. Keightley, Jonas II. McGowau, John 
W. Stone, Edwin Willits, Roswell G. Horr, John S. Newberry, 
John T. Rich, Edward S. Lacey, Henry S. Lord, Wm. W. Web- 
ber. Oliver L. Spaulding, Edward S. Breitung, William C. May- 



154 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

bury, Julius Houseman, Nathaniel B. Eldridge, Edwin B. Wiuans, 
George L. Yaple, Ezra C. Carleton, Byron M. Cutcheon, Herschel 
H. Hatch, Edward Breitung, James O'Donnell, Timothy E. Tars- 
ney, Spencer O. Fisher, Seth C. Moffat, C. C. Comstock — 76. 



Mr. Chamberlain : 

Governor Alger, the chairman of the Commission, has been 
called away by official duties. In his absence, in behalf of the 
Commissioners, I desire to thank the gentlemen for the very able 
papers that have been read to-day. The thanks of all are due to 
all who have taken a part in the musical entertainment, and 
especially are we under great obligations to Messrs. Pittman, Ver- 
nor and Baker, the Committee of Arrangements, who have so 
successfully managed all the affairs of to-day. 

In conclusion : If the exercises of this day have renewed the 
memories of the struggles, trials and joys past in the minds of 
those who sit around and immediately before me, the veterans, 
who, with me, must know that our years here are few in number, 
and that the sun of existence here must soon sink in the west ; if 
they have kindled in the breasts of these, the young men, who 
soon must succeed us, one more feeling of patriotic devotion to our 
country, to our Michigan, then these exercises have not been in 
vain. 



Al)l)Ri:SSES millE SENATE CHAMBER. 



Hon. henry FR ALICE, Presiding. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — The pleasaut duty has been 
assigned to me to preside over the meeting in this hall, at this 
fiftieth anniversary of the admission of JNIichigan as a State into 
the Union, 

It has been deemed appropriate to celebrate the day in com- 
memoration of the event. Eminent citizens, from various walks 
of life, have been selected to gather up and put into permanent 
form not only the general history of the State and the current 
events affecting it, but also the details of its history, and the pro- 
gress of its important branches, wliicl) will undoubtedly hereafter 
form a part of the State's history. 

I have the honor of now introducing to you the oldest Governor, 
United States Senator, Circuit and Supreme Judge, Bank Com- 
missioner and Legislator of the State, now living — all embraced in 
one man, who has ably, honestly and most worthily filled all of 
said offices with the highest credit to himself and benefit to the 
State, the Hon. Alpheus Felch, who will now address you on the 
executive branch of the government. 

EXECUTIVE. 

Hon. alpheus FELCH. 

The region of country now embraced within the limits of the 
State of Michigan has not always reposed beneath the American 
flag or enjoyed the benefit of a republican or popular form of 
government. Since Europeans first attempted to colonize the 
northern part of the continent, Michigan has been subject to the 
jurisdiction of two of the great monarchical thrones of Europe, 
and has owed allegiance and submitted to the edicts of both in 
turn. France and England have successively held it in its grasp, 
and each, for a time, has ruled its destinies. From the earliest 
encroachment of the French upon American soil in the first part 
of the sixteenth century it was claimed as a part of that vast 



156 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

region of country extending from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence 
to the region of the great lakes, and thence finally by the valley 
of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Michigan constituted 
but a small portion of that vast territory, and during the French 
dominion had only a small population, yet the power of the 
French monarch was extended over it and, under the name of 
New France, it was subject to his arbitrary authority. By the 
fortune of war between France and England this territory passed 
from the possession and jurisdiction of the former into that of the 
latter in 1760. Another revolution was yet to follow, and the 
fate of war was again to transfer this fertile and beautiful country 
to the jurisdiction of another national power. At the termina- 
tion of the revolutionary struggle in 1783, Great Britain ceded it 
to the United States, and in July, 1796, the American authorities 
acquired full possession. Thus for more than two hundred years 
the flag of France floated over the land, and for thirty-six years 
that of Great Britain, and each of these nations in turn dictated 
and administered its laws ; and now for more than ninety years 
the Stars and Stripes have been the proud emblem of our nation- 
ality, and our laws have had their origin in the will of the people. 

In looking into the history of the executive authority and of 
those who have administered it here, we necessarily direct our 
attention to the period of French domination. 

The Governors, Lieutenants, Generals, or Viceroys, who per- 
formed the duties of the executive ofiicer in Canada, then embrac- 
ing the present domain of Michigan, as usually given by our 
historical writers, were twenty-five in number, commencing with 
Champlain and continuing to the cession of the country to Great 
Britain. These all held their commissions from the King of 
France and governed in his name and by his authority. The 
instructions accompanying their commissions varied little in sub- 
stance and gave most ample and arbitrary power. They were to 
command and govern both by sea and land ; to ordain, decide and 
cause to be executed, all that they should judge proper for main- 
taining, keeping and preserving the places put under their power 
and authority; and for this purpose they were authorized to com- 
mission all officers whatsoever, whether for aflTairs of war or of 
justiciary or police, and to prescribe all laws, statutes and ordi- 
nances, subject, of course, to the good pleasure of his majesty. 
Certain powers were to be exercised with the advice of prudent 



ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FELCH. 157 

and capable persons, but these persons were selected by the 
Governor himself, and the King, across the broad waters of the 
ocean and harassed by the business of the kingdom, and usually 
engaged in the fierce wars of the period, was neither readily 
approached nor able or willing to listen to complaints. It is not 
too much to say that the executive power which was committed to 
these governors over the population of Canada was broad enough 
to render possible the most arbitary, unlimited and irresponsible 
despotism with which any country was ever scourged. In the 
early portion of this period the exercise of these powers did not fall 
upon the territory now within the boundaries of our State. This 
region of country was then, with the exception of nomadic Indians, 
without inhabitants. The first white men came in 1641, but with 
the exceptions of a few persons connected with the missions, 
there were no white settlers within the territory until the found- 
ing of Detroit by Cadillac in 1701. From that time until 1760, 
when the jurisdiction passed from the French to the English, 
the population gradually increased^ chiefiy by immigrants 
from the Colony of Quebec. These French immigrants were 
generally harmless and innocent peasants, but among them 
were some of fine ac(|uirements and good business ability. They 
were devoted Catholics, enthusiastic adorers of " beautiful France," 
and ardent devotees to the King. They settled around and in the 
immediate neighborhood of the mission and the fort. No people 
ever had within their own bosoms so rich a fountain of perpetual 
pleasure. Always overfiowing with hilarity, full of jokes and 
sport of every kind, wild in their simple amusements and lovers 
of music and of their own soul-stirring songs, none seemed so happy 
or so thoughtless as they ; but when the scene changed and they 
knelt in their devotions before the cross, the solenmity of the 
service seemed to banish every worldly thought and kindle within 
their bosoms the fire of the most ardent saintly devotion. It is 
impossible now to ascertain how many there were of these French 
settlers during the time while they were subject to the Canadian 
authority. The number reported in IbOO was only 551, but forty 
years had then passed since their country's jurisdiction and officers 
had been withdrawn, the fur trade and traffic in goods had 
been interruptetl and had largely passed into the hands of the 
English, and the missions had lost their pristine prosperity. It 
is, therefore, altogether probable that many of the settlers had 



158 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

returned to their old homes before the census was taken, or rather 
estimate made. The Governor residing at Quebec had had dur- 
ing this period little or no direct interference with the settlers in 
this remote portion of his jurisdiction, but committed their charge 
chiefly to the commandants of the military posts. These exercised 
general superintendence as well of the settlers outside the forts as 
of the soldiers within. Questions of legal rights, both as to per- 
son and property, were most frequently adjusted by the kindly 
interposition of the priest, and, when this failed, by the decision 
of the commandant. There appears to have been no regularly 
organized courts, no sheriff, no jail apart from the garrison, nor 
do the records show that during the period of French jurisdiction 
there was a justice of the peace or an alcalde, and jurors were 
entirely unknown. Not an order, law or edict was, during that 
whole time, published in print, for there was not a printing press 
in all New France. Nearly all authority, civil and political, was 
merged in the military, and the settler quietly submitted to the 
dictates of the commandants. The executive power committed to 
the military commander was not, however, limited to the well- 
being or the private interests of the settlers. The commandants' 
authority extended to all matters of intercourse with the Indian 
tribes, requiring the utmost vigilance, prudence and wisdom, and 
sometimes a resort to deadly and bloody combat. He watched 
and, in a manner, superintended the great occupation of the fur 
trade, enforced the conditions under which it was carried on by 
the companies licensed to monopolise it, and punished individuals 
who infringed upon their privileges. He exercised the high pre- 
rogative of granting the King's domain to settlers, and, although 
these grants or ])ermits were technically not permanently valid 
without the approval of higher authority, they have come down 
to us as the basis of title to many a valuable city lot and many a 
beautiful farm on the Detroit, the Rouge, the St. Clair and the 
Raisin rivers. After all, it does not appear that the exercise of 
the executive power of the government in this lake-eucom})assed 
portion of Canada while under the domination of the French, 
although in itself arbitrary and with no available check to 
despotism, was used with unnecessary severity or unwisdom, or 
that the settlers felt it to be in any regard oppressive or cruel. 
Yet under such a system, with trade monoj)oly and onerous feudal 
conditions attached to grants of land, with a hostile and cruel foe 



ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FJ:LCH. 159 

surrounding them, with little encouragement from the supreme 
government, it is no wonder that the immigration was small and 
the colonial settlement, although in a most beautiful and fertile 
region, weak and unthrifty. 

In the list of twenty-five persons w,ho exercised the office of 
Governor during the French domination, few are named who 
are known to history. Two of them, however, were so con- 
nected with the early settlement of the country and its colonial 
affairs that they should never be forgotten. The first of these is 
Samuel de Champlain, who was Lieutenant General and Viceroy 
of Canada in 1612. In youth he served in the French navy, and 
in 1603, under a commission from Henry lY., came to America. 
He established the city of Quebec in lt)08. He went six times to 
France in the interest of the Colony. He held the office of Vice- 
roy for twenty-three years and yielded it only with his life. He 
explored the region of the St. Lawrence, ascended the Ottawa and 
journeyed thence to the eastern shore of Lake Huron ; and coast- 
ing along the shore of Lake Ontario l^ie passed on to Lake Cham- 
plain, and was the first white man whose eyes beheld that spark- 
ling water-gem to which his own name is now most appropriately 
given. He was an ardent friend of Christianity and aided in 
establishing many missions. He was a friend of education, and 
under his patronage a college was established at (Quebec, the city 
of his residence. He was in warm affiliation and friendship with 
the Huron, Algonquin and other neighboring tribes of Indians, 
and in their interest he more than once led them to war against the 
Iroquois, who were the avowed enemies of the French. An active 
and intelligent man, never tiring in the service of the King or 
the colonists ; true as steel to the interests of both, he was a model 
pioneer of civilization and a builder worthy to pose as the founder 
of a new empire. 

The next man of note was Count Frontenac. He was twice 
appointed (Tovernor and served in that capacity from 1672 to 
1682, and again from 1689 to 1699. Under him the forts at 
Michilimackinac and Sault Ste. Marie were established. He was 
active in exploring the country and extending the French inter- 
ests in the region of the great lakes and in conciliating the 
numerous tribes of Indians ^Yho roamed over it. He was once 
removed on unfounded charges made by his enemies, but the 
alarming condition of affiiirs with the hostile Indians made his 



160 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

services again an imperious necessity and he was recalled. Indeed, 
the ease seemed almost desperate. The Five Nations, or Iroquois, 
the old enemies of the French, had allied themselves more closely 
with the English, and had secured the friendship of other tribes 
formerly the allies of the French, and war seemed inevitable. He 
made every possible effort for conciliation, but in vain. In 1690 
an invasion of Canada was made by the New England and New 
York colonies in conjunction with their Indian allies. The 
courage and energy of Frontenac was equal to the emergency. 
With scant time for preparation, he met the invading foe under 
Gen. Schuyler at Montreal, and, a few days later, he successfully 
resisted the invasion of Quebec by Sir William Phipps with 2,000 
men, and repulsed them with great slaughter. But the aggres- 
sions of the Indian foe still continuing, Frontenac invaded the 
country of the Iroquois and destroyed their towns and a fort 
erected by the English. Quiet was finally restored and the col- 
ony again left in peace. No Governor of the province ever per- 
formed better service in peace or in war, and none ever had a 
stronger hold on the gratitude and admiration of the entire com- 
munity. His wisdom and forbearance averted many a threat- 
ened evil ; his firmness and courage repulsed or avenged many an 
aggression. He was a man of decided ability, a friend and coun- 
sellor of the struggling colonist, and he well merited the meed of 
praise due to one who, with singleness of purpose, has devoted his 
life to the good of his country. 

With the taking of Quebec, signalized by the chivalrous acts 
and lamented death of General Wolfe in 1759, all of Canada fell 
into the hands of Great Britain, and the possession of it was after- 
wards confirmed by treaty. In September, 1760, Major Rogers 
appeared at Detroit, as the representative of England, and demanded 
and received the surrender of that place. The proud flag of 
France was lowered, and the red cross of St. George floated in its 
place. The power of the conquerors over their conquered foe here 
exercised its first act of dominion in ^Michigan. The soldiers of 
the French garrison defiled upon the plain, laid down their arms 
and were sent prisoners to Philadelphia. The Canadian militia 
were called together and disarmed, and they took the oath of 
allegiance to the new sovei'eign. The Canadian inhabitants were 
permitted to retain their possessions on condition of taking the 
same oath. The other posts in Michigan were soon surrendered in 



ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEIS FKLCH. 161 

like maimer, aud the entire country of the lakes thus passed from 
the dominion of France, and henceforth, for a time at least, Eng- 
lish rule was to prevail and English agents to administer the law. 
Little immediate change, however, was made by the British 
authorities in managing the affairs of the newly acquired territory. 
It was I'egarded as a conquest and held subject to the arbitrary 
powder of the concjueror. The exercise of this power was coni- 
initti'il to an officer, sometimes denominated Major-General and 
Comniander-in-Cliief, sometimes Governor of Quebec, sometimes 
Governor-General, and sometimes Governor of Upper Canada. 
The seat of this power was, as before, at Quebec. These were the 
executive officers to whom Michigan was subject until the juris- 
diction passed into other hands. During this period of thirty-six 
years — from 1760 to 1796, when actual possession was obtained by 
the United States — the executive office was exercised by tQU dif- 
ferent persons. They were in fact military commanders, and they 
entrusted the administration of tlieir duties largely to the local 
military commanders at the several military posts. It is difficult 
to see much improvement in the condition of the occupant- of the 
country or of the province itself by this change of national juris- 
diction. It was still a military despotism where arbitrary power 
might work its will, and redress for unjust, oppressive or de.-potic 
acts by authorities was almost hopeless. It is true that during 
this period a long and bitter strife was carried on in regaid to ilie 
laws and the administration of public affairs in Canada, and the 
greatest excitement prevailed among the French inhabitants on 
the St. Lawi'euce ; but this had little effect in the remote part of 
the province on the Detroit. The French colonists insisted upon 
retaining their old laws, customs and rights of ])erson and prop- 
erty, and their simple method of protecting these rights; the new 
comers, accustomed to the more technical laws of England, ami 
greedy of the po-ssessions of the conquered, insisted upon radical 
changes in their favor. In the bitter controversies which charac- 
terized this strife, the Michigan colonists seem to have taken no 
part. 

The military power of the local government was generally well 
exercised in the protection of the settlers. It was during this 
period of English domination that Pontiac matured his plan of 
restoring his people to their ancient hunting grounds, destroying 
all military and other obstacles and staying the tide of immigra- 
11 



162 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

tion aud settlement ; aud the utter defeat of his forces in his 
onslaught upon the fort at Detroit alone secured safety to the 
settlers. 

As to the exercise of power under the British rule, in regard to 
the civil rights of the inhabitants, we have few records ; but little 
complaint seems to have been made. It appears, however, that 
the commander of the fort at Detroit exercised jurisdiction in 
criminal cases, and on one occasion, not long after the surrender, 
on the trial of some persons charged with affording assistance to 
Pontiac, he found them guilty and sentenced them to banishment 
from the country. In 1767 Captain Trumbull, who was then in 
command, appointed Philip Dejean a justice of the peace, and 
afterwards issued to him another commission enlarging his powers 
and giving him cognizance of small civil causes, and designating 
him as." Second Judge." But the judge did not confine his labors 
or his jurisdiction to the hearing of small causes. We have evi- 
dence that in three instances, at least, trials for capital offences 
were held before him and the offenders convicted and sentenced to 
execution. The conviction of these persons and the execution of 
two of them, with other acts of alleged severity, caused much 
popular indignation against the judge, and he was indicted for his 
acts by the grand jury at Montreal ; but his friends interfered in 
his behalf and, on appeal to the Governor-General, he was allowed 
to go unpunished. 

It is manifest, also, that the English commanders and lieutenant- 
governors assumed power over the vacant lands and gave posses- 
sory grants of them. In 1763, however, by the King's proclama- 
tion, such grants were expressly forbidden, and fifteen years later 
an order issued by the Governor-General expressly directed the 
commander of the post at Detroit to annul and make void, by 
public act, every concession made by any British commander 
since the acquisition of the country, and to prevent any new set- 
tlement whatever. From the time of the cession of the country 
by France to Great Britain to the surrender of it by the latter to 
the United States under the treaty of 1783, neither the population 
nor the business of JMichigau appears to have made much advance; 
immigration was not encouraged, agriculture made little ])rogress, 
and enterprise of all kinds was suppressed rather than fostered. 
While in Quebec, and Montreal and Three Rivers they had, at 
least for most of the time, a Legislative Council and courts aud 



ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FELCH. 163 

juries and other subordinate officers and a formal administration 
of the law, the region on the upper lakes was treated as a border 
country beyond tlie pale of civilization, and was committed to the 
charge of a subordinate military officer in command of the British 
fort. And in this condition it came to the jurisdiction of the 
United States at the end of the struggle for independence, by the 
treaty of 1788, although actual possession was not obtained until 
1796. 

Among the men to whom was committed the executive power 
during the jieriod referred to, the most distinguished was Sir Guy 
Carleton. Twice he held the position, first in 1766 and again in 
1774. He early distinguished himself as a military commander, 
and was active in the British service in the war of the revolution, 
and he especially commanded the admiration of the Canadians by 
the able and gallant manner in which he met and defeated Mont- 
gomery in his attack upon Quebec. During his entire administration 
he showed himself both just and liberal towards the French inhabit- 
ants of Canada, and urged their right to the full enjoyment of their 
ancient privileges, their laws and their customs. He regarded 
the strict enforcement of martial law as a violation of the articles 
of capitulation, and he inaugurated a more just and liberal policy. 
But unfortunately the breaking out of the war with the American 
colonies called him away for service in the field, and with his de- 
parture the French inhabitants of Canada lost the most liberal 
and just of the early English governors. 

On thesurrender of thefortsin 1796 the territory now constituting 
the State of Michigan for the first time fell under the actual juris- 
diction of the United States. A local government under that juris- 
diction was already organized and in operation, and the newly 
ac(piired territory was at once recognized as within its limits and 
under its authority. Under the provisions of the Ordinance of 
1787 /o/' the government of the Territorij of the United States North- 
ivestqf the River Ohio, the machinery of a territorial government 
was in full operation, with its capitol at Marietta, Ohio. On the 
fifth day of October, 1787, Congress had elected Arthur St. Clair 
as Governor of the Territory and Winthrop Sargent Secretary, and 
a few days later they appointed three persons as Judges of the 
Territory. To the Governor and Judges was committed the full 
power of executive, legislative and judicial duties; together they 
constituted a Legislature, with certain limitations imposed by the 



164r Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Ordinance on their acts ; the Governor alone had full executive 
authority, and the Judges the judicial. In 1795 they had caused 
a code of laws to be printed, and as Michigan was regarded as a 
part of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio temporarily withheld 
by a foreign power, on the withdrawal of the English the laws of 
the Territory at once extended over it. These laws continued 
with slight modifications, perhaps, to be the laws of Michigan until 
1800. In May of that year the Territory Northwest of the Ohio 
was divided into two parts, and the western portion organized into 
a new territory under the name of Indiana. This division cut 
the region of country now embraced in our State into nearly equal 
parts by a line running north and south near the eastern boun- 
dary of the present county of Calhoun, transferring to the juris- 
diction of the new Territory of 'Indiana the region west of that 
line, and leaving the portion east of it as a part of the original 
Northwestern Territory. By Act of Congress approved April 30, 
1802, the eastern division of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio 
was authorized to form a State government, and under it the State 
of Ohio was organized. This organization, however, did not em- 
brace within the State boundaries the eastern portion of Michigan, 
but the law, by express provision, annexed it to the Territory of 
Indiana. Thus the western half of our State became a part of the 
Territory of Indiana in 1800, and the eastern half not until 1802, 
and both portions continued under the jurisdiction of that Terri- 
tory from these dates respectively until the Territory of Michigan 
was organized under the Act of Congress approved January 11th, 
1805. General William Henry Harrison was Governor of the 
Territory of Indiana during this period. The Territory of Michi- 
gan was organized with a government similar to that provided in 
the Ordinance of 1787, except that the first officers were to be ap- 
pointed by the President, by and with the consent of the Senate, 
instead of being elected by Congress. 

Thus it appears that the entire area of the present State of 
Michigan was for four years after the surrender by the British 
(1795-1800) under the executive authority of the old Northwest 
Territory, and that the eastern half of it continued under that 
jurisdiction two years longer (1800-1802). The western half was 
a part of the Territory of Indiana during a period of about five 
years (1800-1805), and the eastern half for about three years 
(1802-1805). 



ADDKESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FELCII. 165 

The Hrst exercise of executive authority uuder American juris- 
diction witliiii the i)reseut liiuits of" Michigan, was contempora- 
neous with the surrender of the post at Detroit. General 
Anthony Wayne was directed to receive the surrender of the 
British forts, and came to Detroit for that purpose. He was 
accompanied by Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Territory 
and then acting Governor, General St. Clair being temporarily 
absent. Immediately after the British flag had been hauled 
down and the Stars and Stripes run up in its place, the Governor 
proceeded to the exercise of the authority granted by the Ordi- 
nance of 1787 — by establishing the county of Wayne, designat- 
ing its officers and declaring Detroit the seat of justice. Courts 
were thereafter held here by the territorial judges who resided 
in Ohio, and they were usually accompanied by members of the 
Bar, who found their long horseback ride an enjoyable pastime 
and their professional practice remunerative. It is the testimony 
of one of these attendants upon the courts — Judge Burnet — in 
his " Notes on the early Settlement, of the Nortliwestern Terri- 
tory," that a large number of suits were commenced, many of 
them to test the correctness of the decisions of the commandants, 
that the docket w\as soon crowded with causes, and the practice as 
lucrative as in any other county in the Territory. The suitors, 
witnesses and jurors were mostly French, and the services of an 
interpreter were always required. On one occasion great offence 
was given to this portion of the population by .Fudge Symmes by 
an allusion in his charge to the Grand Jury to their devotion to 
their religious ceremonies, but the dissatisfaction was removed and 
good humor restored by a conciliatory explanation made by him 
from the bench. In 1798, in accordance with the provision of 
the Ordinance of 1787, representatives to the first general assem- 
bly of the Territory were elected by popular vote. Wayne 
county, then embracing all the country within the present limits 
of the State of Michigan, elected three representatives, one of 
whom was the Hon. Solomon Sibley, afterwards one of the Judges 
of the Territory of Michigan. The representatives assembled 
at Cincinnati in February, 1 799, and selected and nominated ten 
persons to be returned to the President, five of whom were 
selected and commissioned by him as a Legislative Council. 

From the time of the surrender by the British of the fort at 
Detroit there has been no interruption to the full exercise of civil 
government in Michigan. 



166 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

While a part of the " Territory Northwest of the River Ohio,'''' 
Governor Arthur St. Clair, a distinguished soldier and a wise 
and able man, administered the government with firmness and 
discretion. He was a native of Scotland and came to America in 
1758, at the age of twenty-four years. He distinguished himself 
as a gallant officer in the struggle of the Revolution and rose to 
the rank of Major-fteneral in the Northern Department, and 
became a member of the military family of General Washington 
whose confidence and friendship he always enjoyed. He became 
a member of the Congress of the Confederation in 1786 and in 1787 
was chosen its president. He was its presiding officer at the time 
the famous Ordinance of 1787 was passed, and, as such appointed 
the committee which prepared and reported it; and he was the first 
governor appointed under it. It seems that he was reluctant to 
accept the position when offered to him, but considerations 
which do credit to his foresight finally overcame his reluctance. 
In a letter written after his election as Governor, he says that he 
would not have accepted the office but for " the laudable ambition 
of becoming the father of a country and laying the foundation for 
the happiness of millions then unborn." Governor St. Clair 
strongly opposed the organizing of the State of Ohio, and at the 
time of drafting the first Constitution by the convention elected 
for the purpose, exerted himself zealously in opposition to it. He 
especially opposed the proposition to dismember the territory by 
excluding from the proposed State the eastern half of Michigan, 
then known as Wayne county. That portion of the county had no 
representative in the convention to present the wishes of its inhab- 
itants; but Governor St. Clair fought the battle so zealously as to 
give great oflfence and to seriously impair his personal popularity, 
and Chief Justice Chase asserts that he was consequently removed 
from office. Had his arguments prevailed the eastern half of 
Michigan, embracing Detroit and the rich mines of the Upjier 
Peninsula, would have constituted a part of the State of Ohio, 
and, very possibly, might have continued so to this day. 

During the time that Michigan continued to be a portion of the 
Territory of Indiana the executive power over it was in the hands 
of General William Henry Harrison, a distinguished soldier and 
civilian and afterwards President of the United States. The 
administration of Governor Harrison was particularly distinguished 
for the wisdom and courage of his conduct with the Indian tribes, 



ADDRESS OF HON, ALPHEUS FELCH. 167 

then highly excited and in open hostility, and the care with 
which he guarded every interest committed to his charge. The 
power of the executive, however, during this period was, so far as 
Michigan was concerned, little more than nominal. In the west- 
ern there were literally no inhabitants, and in the eastern it does 
not appear that any interference by the Indiana authorities, was 
ever practically exercised. I do not find that any of the laws of 
the Territory of Indiana were ever enforced here, or that any 
ofiicers acted under their authority, or that any resident of Michi- 
gan ever participated in any capacity in the administration of tlie 
government or the laws of the Territory of Indiana. But in fact 
the records of these times are lamentably meagre, and the larger 
portion of them are said to have been long since destroyed and 
irrevocably lost. 

In 1805 another change took place in the government of Michi- 
gan. By act of Congress approved in January, 1805, the Terri- 
tory of Michigan was formed with boundaries much broader than 
those of the present State and with the same governmental organiz- 
ation as provided by the Ordinance of 1787, and the act of Con- 
gress approved on the seventh day of August, 1789. Detroit was 
made the seat of government. The organization was perfected by 
the appointment of General William Hull, as Governor, William 
Woodbridge as Secretary, and Augustus B. Woodward, Frederick 
Bates and John Griffin, Judges. General Hull arrived at Detroit 
and assunied the duties of Governor on the second day of July, 
1805, and, under two re-appointments, he continued to hold the 
office until 1812. The old system of iraposiuo- upon the territorial 
governors duties entirely foreign to an executive office, still con- 
tinued, and he soon found himself .seated at board with the three 
Judges charged with the responsible duties of legislation for the 
Territory. The little village of Detroit had been destroyed by 
fire a few days before his arrival and the prospect before him, on 
entering upon his official duties in the midst of the desolation, 
must have been gloomy enough. But if the connection of Gen- 
eral Hull with aftairs in Michigan commenced in gloom it termin- 
ated in the more sorrowful spectacle of his trial on a charge of 
treason and cowardice and the sentence of death pronounced by a 
court martial convened at Albany. He came to the office of Gov- 
ernor with a record of previous public services which pointed him 
out as a man eminently fitted for the position. He was a graduate 



168 Michigan's sEivn-CENTENNiAL. 

of Yale College, and had devoted himself to the study of the law 
aud been admitted to the Bar. He had served in the war of the 
Revolution from the grade of captain to that of lieutenant-colonel; 
had fought bravely in many of its battles and had received the 
thanks of Washington and of Congress for his gallant services. 

In the performance of his duties as Governor of Michigan dur- 
ing the six years of his administration, so far as related to the 
civil duties of an executive, his record is untarnished. He 
exerted himself to the utmost to secure aid from Congress for the 
settlers who suffered by the burning of Detroit, and he obtained 
for them liberal allotments of lands in the new town, and he did 
much to prepare the way for immigration and for the growth of 
the city. He is charged with no corruption, or bribery, or oppres- 
sion, or infringement of private rights, or of any willful disre- 
gard of the public weal ; yet his administration, both for himself 
and the country, marks a period of unusual disaster. It was 
unfortunate for him that legislative duties were thrown upon him, 
in conjunction with the three judges. Their sessions were always 
characterized by wide differences of opinion, and often with 
unseemly strife aud wrangling. The Chief Justice, Judge Wood- 
ward, was a man of marked peculiarities. He was not without 
ability ; he displayed much obtrusive pedantry, yet was not with- 
out learning ; he was independent in his thoughts and plans, and 
seemed (o make it a principle never to follow the views of any 
other person ; he delighted in opposition. He was gratified to be 
at the head of a following that acknowledged his leadership and 
re-ichoed his sentiments, yet, this failing, he seemed no less 
dtliglited to stand out solitary and alone, brandishing his wea- 
pons and defying his opponents. With such characteristics, it is 
little wonder that the law-enacting board of the Territory should 
soon be at loggerheads. The Chief Justice and one Associate, 
were speedily found uniformly acting together ; the Governor and 
the other Associate in opposition. The same spirit of dissension 
and controversy here begun, soon took a wider range, aud the 
community became sharply divided into hostile parties and vexed 
with angry controversy. The dominant and aggressive bearing of 
the Chief Justice could not bend the Governor to his will, but it 
paralyzed his efforts in the administration of his office and caused 
him much unhappiness. 

On Governor Hull was devolved also the duties of Indian 



ADDRESS OF HON. ALIMIEUS FKLCH. 169 

Agent, and on the successful performance of them important 
interests depended. He succeeded in obtaining a cession of some 
lands in the eastern part of the State, but in the main he accom- 
plished little in that capacity. Neither his native talents or 
disposition, nor the experience of his former life, fitted him for 
dealing, either in war or in peace, with the peculiar character of 
the al)origiues. Indeed the Indian tribes were at that time little 
disposed for negotiation and not readily pacified. The great 
Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh, was already organizing the western 
tribes into a confederacy against the whites, and the threats of 
savage incursions and the bloody strife of cruel warfare already 
begun, brought terror not only to women and children, but to the 
stoutest hearts. The charge of Indian affairs had always been 
committed to the Territorial Governors, generally in connection 
with a military commission, and success had hitherto brought 
them much praise. St. Clair, while Governor of the Northwest 
Territory, negotiated the imjjortant treaty of Fort Harmer, and 
led the American troops in the disastrous excursion against the 
savage foe at the Miami villages. Harrison, while Governor of 
Indiana Territory, concluded thirteen important Indian treaties 
and gained the great battle of Tippecannoe. But we must not 
criticize too severely. The success of Tecumseh in marshalling 
the forces of the Indian tribes and precipitating them upon the 
American forces under his own gallant leatlership at the very 
beginning of the war of 1812, clearly shows that during the agita- 
tion and excitement that preceded it, there was little chance for 
pacification or treaty even from the most skillful of negotiators. 

The event which terminated the official relations of Governor 
Hull with Michigan is one of the most sad in American history. 
Threatenings of w'ar with (rreat Britain had created alarm 
throughout the country, and in the event of hostilities an Indian 
force was sure to attack the western settlements, and none were 
more exposed to their incursions than Michigan. Gen. Hull 
was aware of all this, and alive to the danger. He more than 
once presented to the authorities at Washington the perilous situ- 
ation of the Northwest, cut off from all available aid as it was by 
want of communication by the land or by the lakes, which were 
completely controlled by British vessels. His importunity had no 
effect, and when war with Great Britain was declared, July 18, 
1812, Gen. Hull received a commission as Brigadier-General 



170 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

to command the army in the Northwest. He marched the forces 
given to his command to Detroit and after some hostile excursions 
into Canada the forces again rendezvoused at Detroit. On the 14th 
of August, 1812, Gen. Brock appeared on the Canadian side 
of the river and sent to Gen. Hull a demand to surrender, 
which was refused. Two days after he crossed the river without 
opposition and repeated the demand. Gen. Hull at once entered 
into a stipulation for surrender, reserving only the right of private 
property and the parol of troops on the way who had not yet 
arrived. Gen. Brock reported his forces at 1,330, and in his offi- 
cial report of the conquest he states the number of the captured at 
2,500, both undoubtedly exaggerated. The act of surrender was 
without the advice of the other officers of his command, and with 
no general consultation with them. It fell like a thunderbolt on 
both officers and men, who were ready to die rather than to sub- 
mit to capture, and who had not a doubt of their ability to repulse 
the foe. When the news of the disaster spread over the astonished 
country, one common cry of indignation and grief was every- 
where heard. The campaign was broken up, and the flag of 
Great Britain again floated over the fort. Charges of treason and 
cowardice were made against the general, and two years after- 
wards he was found guilty of the latter charge and sentenced to 
execution, but a consideration of his age and great and long-con- 
tinued meritorious services in earlier life, secured him a pardon 
from the President. So ended the administration and the ser- 
vices of the first Governor of the Territory. The question of the 
merits or the demerits of his last unfortunate public act, and of 
the influence or the ^motive which induced his conduct, has not 
entirely ceased to be discussed, but it is not in our province here 
to consider it. 

From August 16, 1812, to the 29th of September, 181.S, military 
rule prevailed in Michigan. Col. Proctor of the British army 
was made Military Governor under a proclamation that the 
American laws should continue to prevail. He appointed Judge 
Woodward Secretary, and to the great credit of the latter he 
exercised his influence in every manner possible with his superior 
to mitigate the sanguinary cruelty and coarse indignities to which 
the inhabitants were continually subject by his orders. Judge 
Woodward finally, disgusted with Proctor, retired from the Terri- 
tory ; but he returned again after peace was restored and resumed 
his duties as Chief Justice. 



ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FELCH. 171 

After the re-taking of Detroit Lewis Cass, then a colonel in the 
army, was stationed with his regiment at that post. He was 
appointed Governor of the Territory of Michigan October 29, 
18lo, and continued to perform tlie duties of the office until 1^531, 
when he resigned — a period of over sixteen years of continued 
service. These years con.^titute an epoch in the history of Mich- 
igan, and the executive powers of the government have never 
been more assiduously or more successfully exercised in building 
up a new country, or in promoting the growth of agricultural, 
mechanical or educational interests. When his administration 
began, the ravages of the conquering foe, whose flag had just 
given place to our own, were everywhere apparent. The popula- 
tion of the Territory did not much exceed 5,000 ; when he retired 
from the office it could not have been less than 35,000. A few 
years previous the population consisted chiefly of the few scattered 
French settlers who lived along the river banks, and neither the 
English nor American domination had added materially to their 
numbers. But now the eyes of our own American citizens began 
to be open to tlie wonderful advantages of the Northwestern 
country for the settler, and the tide of population began to flow in 
that direction. It was not perhaps so much what was really 
accomplished during that period, as the fact that the foundation 
was then laid for that greater growth and prosperity which has 
since followed — the laying of a corner-stone upon which a noble, 
magniticent superstructure has since arisen, — the planting of the 
humble seed which has sent forth its vigorous shoot, and with its 
growth has now becouie a magnificent tree. 

The territorial government at the commencement of Gov. 
Cass' administration was still in that undemocratic state which 
entrusted the making of the laws to the Governor and Judges. It 
ignored the existence of popular rights and compelled a submis- 
sion to officers appointed arbitrarily at Washington. But in the 
administration of Gov. Cass, his associate officers were men of 
ability and high character, and they acted in perfect harmony 
and with a high regard to the interests of the people. So well sat- 
isfied were the people with this peculiar form of government, that 
in February, 1818, when a vote was taken on substituting for it 
a (Tcneral Assembly elected by the people, as provided by the 
Ordinance of 1787, a majority of votes was^cast against it. 

In the administration of Indian affairs Gov. Cass was most for- 



172 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

tunate. He early began negotiations with them and soon suc- 
ceeded in securing their confidence and respect. Under his 
administration he secured by treaties with various tribes, large 
concessions of laud in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, and through 
his aid important concessions of land beyond the Mississippi were 
obtained. Sixteen treaties made while he filled the office of Gov- 
ernor are enumerated as negotiated by him or through his influ- 
ence. The justice and kindness of his dealings with the Indians 
did much to pacify and quiet them and dispel the fears of the 
settlers of hostile attacks from them. 

The opening of the public domain for sale was indispensable to 
the settlement of the country. Gen. Cass had urged the necessity 
of this, and of preliminary surveys preparatory to it. Surveys 
had been ordered, but it was not till 1818 that the first sales were 
made by government of lands in Michigan. This opened the 
country to the immigration of most desirable settlers, who could 
obtain perfect titles to the lands they might select, and induced 
them to become permanent citizens. 

In the meantime the right of popular representation took 
strong hold of the public mind and, it is asserted, was always 
favored by Gov. Cass. In 1818 the Territory was authorized by 
Act of Congress to send a delegate to that body to be elected by 
a vote of all taxable citizens. In 1823 the legislative power of 
the Governor and Judges was abolished and the power transferred 
to a council of nine persons, who should be selected by the Presi- 
dent from eighteen elected by the people; and by another Act of 
Congress in 1827, a Legislative Council, consisting of thirteen 
members, was to be elected, who, without sanction by President or 
Congress, should legislate for the Territory. 

The connection of Gov. Cass with the gubernatorial office ceased 
by his resignation in 1831. He was appointed Secretary of War 
by President Jackson, and immediately entered on the duties at 
Washington. His administration as Governor was one of decided 
success, and while it secured great results to the Territory, it 
bound him to the people by the strongest bonds of respect and 
love. Nor did his connection with tliem cease in after years. He 
represented the State in the Senate of the United States by elec- 
tion in 184 , and again in 1849. He was Minister to France and 
Secretary of War under President Jackson and Secretary of State 
under President Buchanan. His was a long life spent in public 



ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FELCH. 173 

service, and he well deserved the rewards due to a faithful, hon- 
est and able public servant. The statue just ordered by our 
Legislature to be placed in the Capitol at Washington among the 
statues of the most eminent men of other States of the Union, is 
a just tribute to his memory. Michigan honors herself in thus 
honoring her most illustrious statesman. 

The next person appointed Governor of the Territory was 
George B. Porter, of Pennsylvania. He was commissioned in 
August, 1831, but died after a short incumbency of the office. 
He was the last Governor appointed during the existence of the 
territorial government. 

He was succeeded in the performance of the executive duties by 
Stevens T. Mason, Secretary of the Territory, who became acting 
Governor on the death of Governor Porter. Governor Mason 
was a very young man. He had succeeded his father, John T. 
Mason, as Secretary of the Territory, in August, 1831, and it is 
said that the duties of Governor devolved upon him in that 
capacity before he was twenty-one years of age. He continued to 
perform the duties of the office until September 8, 1835, when he 
was removed by President Jackson. This period of four years is 
one of note in the history of jNIichigan. During the time, popu- 
lation was rapidly pouring into the Territory and spreading itself 
widely through the interior, building up towns and villages and 
beautifying the country with cultivated farms. Near the close of 
this period was held the convention which prepared a Constitution 
for the future State, which was adopted by popular vote in October, 
1835. In "this year, also, occurred the memorable controversy 
with Ohio in reference to the southern boundary line — a contro- 
versy which greatly excited the public mind on both sides of the 
line and made conspicuous the Governors both of Ohio and Mich- 
igan. The subject of the controversy was really very simple, but 
the prospective importance of Toledo and its position on navigable 
waters, prompted the almost frantic exertions of Ohio to secure it 
for that State. Ever since the Territory was organized, the line, 
surveyed and well detined, running a few miles south of Toledo, 
had been the recognized boundary to which the territorial juris- 
diction had been exercised. It lay within the recognized limits 
of Monroe county, a county which was organized iu 1817, and had 
continued from the first to exercise uninterrupted jurisdiction over 
it in every respect as a part of its terrritory, until the adverse 



174 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

claim to possession was urged in 1835. It is true that Ohio had 
repeatedly petitioned Congress to include the territory in dis- 
pute within her limits by establishing the line known as 
the Harris line — a line run on a course departing from that 
established by the Ordinance of 1787, and by the acts estab- 
lishing the limits alike of Michigan and Ohio, but the applica- 
tions were never successful. An act of the Legislature of Ohio 
passed in accordance with a recommendation contained in the 
Governor's message of February 6, 1835, extending the jurisdic- 
tion of the State over the disputed territory, and providing for 
the appointment of officers to carry that jurisdiction into effect, 
and to run and mark the line claimed by them, caused great 
excitement in Michigan, and the Territorial Council, on the 12th 
of February 1836, passed an act making it a criminal offence for 
any person to exercise, or attempt to exercise, any official func- 
tions, or officiate in any office or situation within the present 
jurisdiction of the Territory by virtue of any commission or 
authority not derived trom the authority of the Territory or of 
the United States. Resistance to the exercise of the authority of 
Michigan soon followed. The sheriff attempting to arrest indi- 
viduals against whom he held warrants on criminal charges was 
resisted, and one of his deputies wounded. The posse comitatus 
was called out in aid of the sheriff. But the resistance to the 
lawful authorities now assumed a more alarming aspect. The 
Governor of Ohio determined to enforce the law of that State by 
taking forcible possession of the territory and ousting the Mich- 
igan authorities, and he called out a military force for that pur- 
pose. The authorities of Michigan would not submit to this 
forcible dispossession, and by the order of the Governor a portion 
of the military of the Territory was sent in aid of the civil 
authorities. The aspect of affairs became alarming, and forcible 
collision between the armed forces of the two parties was liable 
at any moment to lead to bloodshed. The national authorities at 
Washington were alarmed with the threatened collision. The 
President referred the question of legal rights to the Attorney 
General, and that officer on the 21st of March, 1835, in an exhaus- 
tive and lucid opinion, concluded as a result, that the territory in 
dispute must be regarded as forming a part of the Territory of 
Michigan, and that it was the duty of the President so to regard 
it and to protect and maintain it — that the act of the Legislature 



ADDKE8S OF HON. ALI'HEUS FELCH. 175 

of Ohio extending the jurisdiction of that State over it was 
I'epugnant to the acts of Congress on tlie subject, and its enforce- 
ment would involve a most serious violation of the laws of the 
United States. He held, also, that the act of the Legislative 
Council of Michigan making it a criminal oflence, punishable by 
tine and imprisonment in any person who should exercise or 
attempt to exercise any official functions, or officiate in any office 
or situation, in the disputed territory, by virtue of any commission 
or authority not derived from the Territory or the United States 
Government, was a valid law; and he strongly intimates that if an 
armed force should invade the territory for the purpose of estab- 
lishing the jurisdiction of Ohio by force of arras, the autliorities 
of Michigan might properly repel force with force in defence of 
their rights, and if this did not avail, it might become the duty of 
the President to render more effective aid. The situation of 
affairs became more and more alarming and military forces on 
both sides were called into service, and connnenced their march 
towards the disi)uted territory. It then became more than a mere 
local controversy, and presented a question of national importance 
which greatly perplexed the autliorities of the federal capital. A 
hostile collision was imminent. The President was anxious to 
avoid such a conflict, and ardently desired an amicable aiTange- 
ment of the matter, and for that purpose appointed two commis- 
sioners, Hon. Richard Rush and lion. Benjamin C. Howard to 
visit and intercede with the Governors of Ohio and Michigan. 
They arrived in Ohio April 1, 1835, and for four or five weeks 
thereafter were engaged in efforts to effect their object, sometimes 
in Ohio, sometimes in Michigan, sometimes by personal interviews 
with the Governors and sometimes by correspondence. But the 
effort was not a success, and on the 5th of May they returned to 
Washington. During these negotiations Gov. Mason stood firmly 
by the right of Michigan to the h)ng conceded jurisdiction over 
the tract in dispute, and to the enforcing of the laws of Michigan 
within it ; and he refused to give any sanction to the organizing of 
counties, or townships, or courts within it under Ohio authorities. 
They proposed to him to allow the juristliction of Ohio to be 
extended, and that Michigan ami Ohio should exercise concurrent 
jurisdiction, and that tlie officers of both should together exercise 
authority : but to this he refused his assent. They urged him to 
abandon all idea of force and withhold his asseut to the exercise 



176 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

of it, but he considered it his duty to preserve the integrity of the 
territory, and to allow the executive officers to enforce the laws of 
Michigan within its borders ; and, if the circumstances demanded 
it, he would refuse no aid which the executive might properly 
furnish. The troublesome question of the southern boundary of 
Michigan was finally settled by action of Congress in the act 
organizing the State of Michigan, passed June 15, 1836. This 
act gave to Ohio the tract in dispute and, as a compensation, 
added the country on Lake Superior, now famous for its rich 
copper and iron mines, to the territory described in the Constitu- 
tion as presented to Congress. By a subsequent assent to this 
change of State limits by a convention held in Michigan, the new 
boundaries were accepted, and a subsequent act of Congress 
settled the controversy forever. 

It is needless to say that this controversy gave great annoyance 
and trouble to Governor Mason. A young man scarcely twenty- 
four years old, he had to bear responsibilities and perform official 
duties which required the wisdom and experience of an older man. 
This controversy brought him into sharp collision with men in high 
official position and distinguished for long experience and eminent 
ability. His correspondence on the subject is marked by its direct- 
ness, its clearness of statement, its cogency of argument. His 
voluminous correspondence with the President, the Secretary of 
State, the Secretary of War, the Governor of Ohio, and with 
Messrs. Rush and Howard, the commissioners ; and his messages 
on the same subject to the Legislative Council, all evince ability 
of more than ordinary power, and a zeal in urging the claims and 
defending the rights of the Territory whose chief executive officer 
he was. With the Governor of Ohio he was, of course, brought 
into sharp collision. With the wishes of General Jackson, then 
President, and whom above all men he admired, he could not com- 
ply, and preferred to retire from his office rather than decline to do 
what he thought duty demanded of him. But on the real question at 
issue, the question as to the true boundary line under the acts of 
Congress, and the legality of the proposed action of Ohio in 
extending her jurisdiction and establishing and maintaining her 
officers by force within the Territory, there is no evidence that 
General Jackson took any view different from that of Governor 
Mason ; and it is certain that the Attorney General, his legal 
adviser, was clear in his opinion that Michigan was right in her 



ADDRESS OF HON. ALPIIELTS F'ELCH. 177 

views on this point, and that the executive should maintain the 
established jurisdiction, and that, too, by force if invaded from 
abroad. And this, too, was the expressed view of at least some 
of the other members of the Cabinet. But the President was 
anxious to avoid all trouble, and it is said that he was j)articularly 
anxious to pacify and conciliate the State of Oliio, whose large 
vote might be important in the presidential election which was not 
far off. At all events, he was willing to avoid the threatened col- 
lision by allowing Ohio for the time beingto estal)lish her juri.-^dic- 
tion, and her newly appointed judges and other officers within the 
Territory, and that the executive of Michigan should abstain 
from resistance in the meantime and cease to perform what, in 
the view of the Governor, was his sworn official duty. On this 
they disagreed, and Governor Mason was removed from office. 

In this long and l)itter controversy, Gov. Mason at no time stood 
alone. Tiie Legislative Council were always with him, and by 
their legislative acts they not only proclaimed the right but pro- 
vided efficient means for securing .and defending them. The 
people were with him, and most heartily and zealously supported 
him and his measures, and gloried in the chivalrous spirit with 
which he defended their cause. On the eleventh day of Septem- 
ber, l'So5, the troops having returned from Toledo to Monroe, they 
were received by Gov. Mason,. and the hearty acclamations with 
which his short address was received, gave ample evidence of 
the strong hold which he had upon the affections of the people. 
But this was the last act of Gov. Mason as Territorial Governor. 
His removal from the office followed almost immediately after. 
But on the first Monday of October succeeding — a short month 
after — he was elected Governor of the State of Michigan, under 
the Constitution of 1835, by a vote of nearly eight thousand to 
about eight hundred given for the opposing candidate. 

Gov. Mason was succeeded in the office by John S. Horner, 
who was appointed Secretary of the Territory by President Jack- 
son. He arrived in Detroit on the nineteenth day of September 
of the same year, and immediately called on Gov. Mason, and 
took charge of tiie Territorial Government as acting Governor. 
His official term was short ; and on or about the seventh day of 
November following, he bid adieu to that part of the territory 
of Michigan now within the limits of the State, and passed on to 
the west. The gubernatorial career of Gov. Horner was by no 
12 



178 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

means a pleasant or an exultant one. He came at an unfortun- 
ate time. He succeeded a man whose popularity was, at the time, 
unbounded, and whose praise was on the lips of all. He came to 
a community excited in the contest over the boundary question, 
and by no means predisposed to the views which he was expected 
to represent and to urge. He arrived only ten days before an 
election was to take place under the State Constitution of Gov- 
ernor and other State officers, and when the territorial organiza- 
tion was regarded very much as a thing of the past. His first 
act, and indeed almost the only official act of his short adminis- 
tration, was the pardon of certain persons who had been arrested 
in Monroe and Lenawee counties charged with a violation of the 
law against infringement of the jurisdictional rights of the Terri- 
tory. He also sent pardons in blank to the Governor of Ohio, to 
be used at his discretion. He extended the clemency of his par- 
dons to the accused as well before trial as after trial and convic- 
tion. Gov. Horner went to Monroe at the session of the court, 
and in a communication dated October 19th, lSo5, gives a most 
deplorable account of his expedition and the manner of his re- 
ception. The truth was that the Governor became alarmed 
without cause, and in his fright construed the most harmless and 
meaningless circumstances into a design against his honor and his 
life ; and his own acts brought ridicule upon himself He says in 
his report that " there never was a government in Christendom 
with such officers, civil and military, and filled with such doctrines, 
as Michigan." He doubtless found his brief official sojourn in 
Michigan devoid of pleasure ; he had no friends ; nobody sought 
his society or courted his notice ; he came to perform acts which 
were distasteful to the entire community, but that he was foolishly 
alarmed without cause, and fancied danger where none existed, is 
manifest. His final departure from Michigan to the western 
shores of Lake Michigan was doubtless a relief and a source of 
joy to himself, and it brought no regret to those whom he left 
behind him. 

With the departure of Governor Horner the Territory virtually 
ceased to exist in that portion of the country lying [east of Lake 
Michigan. But the Territory of Michigan embraced a much 
larger region of country. The present States of Wisconsin, Iowa 
and Minnesota and a portion of Dakota were within its limits. 
These, after the organization of the State, constituted the Terri- 



ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FKLCII. 179 

tory of Michigan, and Governor Horner betook himself to this 
part of his jurisdictional domain, and still acting as Governor of 
Michigan, issued proclamation calling together the Legislative 
Council of the Territory. The session was held at Green Bay in 
January, 1836, and the Council petitioned Congress to pi'ovide for 
the organization of the Territory of Wisconsin. This organiza- 
tion was secured by an 'act of Congress in May following, and 
with it terminated the gubernatorial functions of Gov. Horner. 

With his departure and the cessation of the territorial govern- 
ment here, the State organization at once succeeded. The Gov- 
ernor, Lieutenant Governor and members of the Legislature, 
elected in October under the Constitution, took the oath of office 
at the beginning of November, and put the State government in 
complete operation in all its departments. From this time until 
the passing of the final act of admission by Congress, January 26, 
1837, Michigan was a State, with its State government fully 
organized, and its executive, judicial and legislative departments in 
complete operation, yet a State not admitted within the circle of 
the Union, nor was the territorial government formally abro- 
gated or annulled. The two jurisdictions stood iace to face, but 
luckily for all parties and for the public peace, no collision 
occurred, nor were any of the troublesome questions which the 
anomalous condition suggests, ever mooted. 

We have seen that Governor Mason entered upon the duties of 
the chief executive officer of the State while a very young man, 
and that he was called to the position with ease, enthusiasm and 
unanmity. He held the office from November, 1<S35, to January, 
1840. This was the period in which the foundation stones of the 
new Republic under the Constitution were laid. The present 
institutions of the State received their origin and largely their 
form in those early days. Every interest belonging to the people 
of the State in their individual rights and duties, and every right 
and duty of the State as such, were necessarily the subject of con- 
sideration and care. Gov. Mason's messages to the Legislature 
show how carefully he studied every subject of public import- 
ance and how ardently he labored, in conjunction with the Legis- 
lature, to adopt in the young State a system of judicious laws, 
and to mould a policy which would insure liappiness for the pres- 
ent and in the future prosperity and greatness to the Republic. 
In the performance of all executive duties Gov. Mason was assidu- 



180 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

ous aud untiring. As a man he was genial, kind and compan- 
ionable, and his personal popularity never ceased. At the end of 
his second gubernatorial term he entered upon practice as a mem- 
ber of the legal profession in the city of New York, but in a few 
short years he passed away. I never recall to mind the stirring 
incidents and events of those early times in the history of our 
State, that the youthful Governor does not stand by my side — a 
fitting representative and emblem of the new republic, both 
entering with youthful vigor upon a career, looking, each in its 
proper sphere, to a long bright future. But the time of youth 
has passed. Fifty years of growth have changed the young State 
into a great and prosperous republic, with a future brighter and 
more promising than the most enthusiastic then dared to hope ; 
but the man long since, but still in early manhood, passed to that 
immortality which lies in the great future. 

Governor Woodbridge's term commenced in January, 1840> 
and ended with that year. He was a native of Connecticut, but 
removed early to Ohio and entered on the practice of the law at 
Marietta in 1806, aud was afterwards a member both of the 
Assembly and Senate of that State. He came to Michigan in 
1814, under an appointment by President Madison, as Secre- 
tary of the Territory, and continued in the office of Secretary 
until 1827. General Cass was during that time Governor of the 
Territory. In the course of that period the Secretary was often 
called upon to perform the duties of Governor. He was the first 
delegate from Michigan to Congress, a Judge of the Supreme 
Court of the Territory, a member of the convention that drafted 
the State Constitution in 1835. This long intimacy with Michi- 
gan and its varied interests, and the ability and integrity with 
which he had performed every official duty, gave him exceptional 
qualifications for the position of chief executive officer of the 
State, and his fellow-citizens did not fail to appreciate these quali- 
fications, and he was elected to the office in 1839 ; nor did their 
partiality end with this. In 1841 he was chosen by the Legisla- 
ture to the Senate of the United States. In these various positions 
Governor Woodbridge performed his duties in a manner that did 
him great credit, and secured the confidence and admiration of 
all. He was a man of extensive reading and much and varied 
learning ; a modest and retiring man, yet genial aud kind in his 
feelings. Few men were as familiar as he with the incidents and 



ADDRESS OK HON. ALPHEUS FELCH. 181 

stirring events of western life; attention was secured, and his 
listener was sure to be rewarded with the rich treasures stored up 
in his memory. He died in Detroit, in October, 18(il. 

John S. Barry, the third Governor of the State of Michigan, 
WHS elected to succeed Governor Woodbridge in the office, and his 
term commenced in January, 1842. He was again elected for the 
term beginning in January, 1844, and subsequently for the terra 
beginning in January, 1850. This repeated call to this high 
office by his fellow-citizens shows clearly the high estimate in 
which he was held by the people, and their confidence in his integ- 
rity and capacity. He was a native of the State of Vermont, and 
his occupation was that of a merchant. His first two terras era- 
braced a time of much embarrassment in business afiairs, and very 
considerable complication in the pecuniary condition of the State. 
He guarded the public treasury with watchful eyes, and his hand 
fell heavily on the shoulder of any man who indicated a thought 
of tampering with the bolt that guarded the treasury. The 
economy of his administration was proverbial, yet he did not hesi- 
tate to pledge his own personal responsibility when the public 
interest required it for the payment of a public obligation. In 
1845 it became necessary for the State to purchase some railroad 
iron to be used on the State railroad. The iron was contracted 
for in New York, but the vendor was not satisfied with the respon- 
sibility of the State, and would not deliver the iron unless the 
Governor would personally guaranty the payment of the bonds. 
This he did, and the iron was delivered and used on the road. It 
was by law to be paid for out of the income of the road, but at the 
expiration of the Governor's term of office a considerable amount 
remained unsatisfied. When about to take his place as hia suc- 
cessor, he explained to me the condition of his liability, and ex- 
pressed the hope that it might be consistent with the public weal 
to continue the application of the income to the payment of this 
debt. He had expected that it would be liquidated before his 
office expired, and if it had been, no man would ever have known 
from him of the responsibility he had vi)hintarilv assumed. The 
debt was paid in due time by the Slate. 

The successors of Governor Bany in the executive office were 
thirteen in number, seven of whom are still living. Those who 
have departed this life have left an enviable record of services 
performed and official honors most worthily borne. 



182 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Epaphroditus Ransom, a native of Vermont, after holding the 
position of Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, entered upon 
his duties as Governor in January, 1848. Robert McClelland, a 
native of Pennsylvania, became Governor of Michigan in January, 
1852. He was a member of the constitutional convention that 
drafted the Constitution of the State in 1835, and also of that 
which prepared the Constitution of 1850 ; was three times elected 
a member of Congress, and was Secretary of the Interior during 
the administration of President Pierce, Kinsley S. Bingham was 
a native of New York, and became Governor of Michigan in Jan- 
uary, 1855, and was elected for the succeeding term. He was a 
member of Congress from 1847 to 1851, and was elected to the 
United States Senate for the term commencing March 4, 1859. 
Moses Wisner, a native of New York, was Governor during the 
term commencing in January, 1859. He subsequently served as 
an officer in the Union Army during the war of the Rebellion, 
and died in the service in January, 18G3. Henry H. Crapo 
was born in Massachusetts, and was elected Governor for the term 
commencing in January, 1865, and again for the next succeeding 
term. John J. Bagley was a native of New York, and held the 
office of Governor of Michigan during two successive terms com- 
mencing in January, 1878. The two persons last mentioned were 
strictly business men. They were early attracted to Michigan by 
the prospect it offered for large business operations, and for many 
years devoted themselves untiringly to their respective business 
avocations, and they were among the most enterprising, successful 
and honorable citizens of the State. 

Six of the former Governors of the State still survive. These, 
with the date of the commencement of their official terms, are as 
follows : 

Alpheus Felch, January 5, 1846. 

Austin Blair, January 2, 1861. 

Henry P. Baldwin, January 6, 1869. 

Charles M. Croswell, January 3, 1877. 

David H. Jerome, January 1, 1881. 

JosiAH W. Begole, January 1, 1883. 

Russell A. Alger, the present (xovernor, was inducted into 
that office January 1, 1885, and his term will expire with the 
present year (1886). 

I have thus briefly glanced at the history of the executive power 



ADDKESS OF MAJOK W. C. RANSOM. 183 

and of those by whom it has been exercised from the time when the 
authority of organized government first asserted itself in Michigan to 
the present time. During this period the Kings of France and of 
England in turn claimed Michigan as their own, and exercised 
jurisdiction over its territory and its sparse population ; and more 
recently it constituted a part of the Territory Northwest of the 
Ohio, and again of the Territory of Indiana. Not one of the per- 
sons who were clothed with the executive authority during this 
long period of time is now living, and probably not one who par- 
ticipated in any manner in the administration of the .several gov- 
ernments; nor is there any living of the chief executive officers of 
the Territory of Michigan, and few, if any, of its other officials. 
The list of the living (xovernors is brief; and of these personally 
it does not become me to speak on this occasion. Most, if not all 
of them, are here present within the hearing of my voice. Kach, 
in his proper time, has labored, both officially and personally, in 
building up this noble structure of our Republic. Brothers, let 
us heartily rejoice togother on thi:s anniversary. Our dreams, 
and the dreams of our fathers, are more than realized, (^ur cup 
of joy is full. The grand result of fifty years of toil and anxiety 
in building up our beloved Commonwealth is spread before us. 
It is enough. Our hearts glow with thankfulness for the past 
and the present, and we invoke for our State the richest blessings 
in centuries that are to come. 



EVENING SESSION — SENATE CHAMBER. 

Hon. henry FRALICK, Pkesiding. 



THE RAILROADS OF MICHIGAN. 

Major W. C. RANSOM. 

The State of Michigan was admitted to the Union at the thresh- 
hold of what may properly be designated in the world's record 
as the "railroad age." Historians in the enthusiasm born of their 
theme, have perpetuated the glories of the Golden, and the splen- 
dors of the Silver Ages, but neither, with all that can be said, 
with reference to the advances made in civilization, enlightenment 
and material development of the world's resources during those 



184 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

progressive periods, are at all comparable with the wonderful 
accomplishments that have distinguished the nineteenth century. 

It is difficult to realize the fact that when Michigan entered 
upon her career in the sisterhood of States, — less than ten years 
had elapsed since Stephenson with the little " Rocket " had demon- 
strated upon the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the practi- 
cability of its operation with steam carriages, and the movement of 
cars laden with passengers and freight at a speed of twenty-five 
miles per hour without hurt or damage to the persons or property 
transported. In our own country as early as 1825, Col. John 
Stevens of Hobokeu, had constructed a miniature engine, the 
success of which was demonstrated upon a circular track in front 
of his residence ; it was not until four years later that Peter Cooper, 
the distinguished citizen and afterwards capitalist of New York 
City, had placed upon the track of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
road a rudely constructed machine, but able to draw after it a 
passenger car loaded with thirty-six passengers at a speed of 
eighteen miles per hour. This last accomplishment supplement- 
ing Stephenson's success upon the other side, left no room for doubt 
that railroads would in the near future replace all other agencies 
for inland transportation. 

New York, inspired by the foresight and energy of De Witt 
Clinton, had just completed the Erie canal by which the waters of 
the great lakes had been connected with the ocean, and the rich 
and unoccupied area that bordered upon the shores made accessible 
to the teeming thousands, who, forsaking the mountainous and less 
fertile regions upon the Atlantic slope, sought new homes where 
milder skies and more generous soil offered easier and larger 
returns to the hand of labor. 

Among the Territories of the Northwest, jNIichigan was among 
the first to feel the impulse given to immigration by the enter- 
prise of the Empire State, and her broad domain, so long reported 
by trappers and the agents of the fur companies, which at that 
early day held almost exclusive possession within her exterior 
borders, as only an extended swamp, swarmed with the hardy 
pioneers whose I'esouuding axes soon made it evident that they 
had come to stay. The fiction by which the tide of people seeking 
their fortunes in the new west had been turned in other directions 
once dissipated, an inflow of immigration commenced, hitherto 
unprecedented in the history of the country. The class of popu- 



ADDRESS OF MAJOR W. C. RANSOM. 185 

lation that made up the early inhabitants of Michigan was excep- 
tional in enterprise and intelligence, largely from New England 
and Eastern New York, the founders of our State brought with 
them habits of thrift and industry, and shar[)ly defined ideas of 
policies, that could not fail to stand them well in hand in forming 
the institutions of the new commonwealth, so soon to grow up 
under their guidance and supervising care. The building of a 
new State could not have fallen into better or more judicious con- 
trol. From the first, there was a thorough appreciation of the 
magnificent possibilities, and a firm determination to carry them 
to their most successful end. Prominent among other agencies to 
be relied upon for the accomplishment of such purpose, was the 
devising and completion of a system of internal improvements, to 
supplement the advantages already secured by the navigable 
waters which washed the exterior boundaries of the Territory, and 
whose fourteen hundred miles of coast, indented with innumerable 
bays and inlets, furnished the finest of harbors for commerce and 
refuge, to the shi[)j)ing already beginnuig to multiply on the great 
Northwestern lakes. The successful outcome of the canal system 
of the Atlantic States had for some years previously given to such 
method of internal traflSc, the first place in popular favor, but 
with the certainty at last, that the steam locomotive for so long a 
time almost ridiculed as the wildest of Utopian fancies, had 
become an assured fact, public sentiment (piickly underwent a 
change, and the demand for the railroad instead of the slow-going 
canal, everywhere asserted undenied supremacy. Our early set- 
tlers exposed to the fever before leaving their Kasterii iiomes, very 
soon developed out clear cases of the mania for the iron horse, 
real evidences of which l)e('atuo manifest in our early territorial 
legislature. 

The first railroad charter granted in Michigan was an act to 
incor[)ordte the Pontiac and Detroit Railway Company, approved 
July 31, IboO ; this was less than nine months subsequent to 
Stephenson's successful operation of the " Rocket " in England, 
and before there could be said to be a mile of track in practical 
use for general traffic within the limits of the United States. Cer- 
tainly there was none upon which locomotive engines had replaced 
the horse-power common to tlie tramways in use to a limited extent 
during the earlier years of the century. In reviewing the provi- 
sions of that first charter it is impossible to suppress a smile as we 



186 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

read of some of the conditions imposed upon the corporation in 
the construction of their road. They were generously permitted 
to use a strip of the United States road, commonly called the 
Saginaw road, not exceeding twenty feet in width running parallel 
with the centre of said road from the village of Pontiac to the city 
of Detroit, but with the following very unusual proviso : " that 
such railroad should not interfere with the ditches and traveled 
part of said road," nor pass upon the ground lying between said 
ditches. Another section provided that such railroad should be 
so constructed as to admit of the easy and safe passage of wagons, 
carts, sleds and teams at the points where public and private roads 
intersected the line of the said Saginaw road. Certainly there was 
no subordinating the public interest and convenience to the de- 
mands of a soulless corporation, in that charter, and one looks 
through the entire instrument in vain to find that a single franchise 
was granted beyond that of the right to build a railway ; and as to 
what manner of creature the latter was to be, if we may judge 
from their legislation, our early lawmakers were in blissful ignor- 
ance most wonderful to contemplate. The archives of the State 
do not indicate that the above mentioned charter was ever utilized ; 
but, all the same, it remains upon the statute book, a silent wit- 
ness of the fact that our founders fully intended to keep well up 
with the procession in all that appertained to the material progress 
of the times. 

On the 22d day of April, 1683, an act of the territorial legis- 
lature to incorporate the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company 
became a law. The road of this company was the first to be 
opened for traffic in Michigan, and among the earliest of any in 
the United States. The termini of this road were to be Port 
Lawrence and Adrian, and thence to such point on the Kalama- 
zoo river as should be deemed most proper and useful. Port 
Lawrence is now known as Toledo, and was then supposed to be 
within the limits of Michigan, but as the result of the bloodless 
contest for State supremacy over the mouth of the Maumee, Ohio 
was confirmed in her claim to the right of possession, and in lieu 
thereof, Congress generously gave to us the Upper Peninsula, 
then thought to l)e only a waste of rock and wilderness, on the 
solitude of which civilization would long hesitate to intrude. It 
is hardly necessary to say that what was then deemed a misfor- 
tune, has proved a blessing in disguise, and that to-day, six hun- 



ADDRESS OF MAJOR W. C. RANSOM. 187 

dred and fifty miles of railway tracks traverse that erstwhile 
inhospitable region, carrying towards the trade centers of the 
country the inexhaustible and invaluable product of its iron and 
copper mines. 

The Erie & Kalamazoo railroad was opened for traffic in 1836; 
it was cheaply constructed upon the plan generally adopted for 
nearly all of our primitive roads. First, heavy mud sills hewn 
from the longest sticks of timber obtainable from our almost 
unequalled forests, were planted in the road-bed. To these were 
firmly spiked the ties first properly notched to receive the oak 
stringers, which by means of wedges were secured in position, and 
chamj)fered at the upper inside face so as to permit a safe bear- 
ing of the car-wheel flanges. To these stringers was spiked a 
thin, narrow strap rail, weighing not more than six to eight 
pounds to the yard, easily loosened from the fastenings by the 
engagement of the car-wheels passing over it; and as experience 
frequently proved, wonderfully apt to intrude upon the comfort 
of the passengers seated above by passing up through the car 
floors and wrecking things generally. Technically, these car 
inspectors were known as " snake heads." Compared to the solid 
superstructures to which we are accustomed at the present day, 
the roadways of half a century ago seem absurd enough ; but 
nevertheless they were " pointed to with pride " by the pioneers 
of that early period, who firmly believed that when the journey 
from Toledo to Adrian and return could be made through the 
hitherto almost impassable recesses of the Mauraee swamp in two 
days, but little in the way of rapid transportation was left to be 
desired. 

For some months after the completion of the road, the cars 
were drawn by horses, but on the 20th of January, 1837, the 
Toledo Blade announced the arrival of the long expected loco- 
motive " Adrian," — No. 80, from the Baldwin works at Philadel- 
phia. It was the third engine to be sent west of the Alleghany 
range, and the first to the vStates west of New York bordering 
upon the great lakes. The commissioners in charge now announced 
to "emigrants and travelers," that the Erie and Kalamazoo rail- 
road was in full operation between Adrian and Toledo, and that 
people destined for the west, Michigan City, Chicago, and Wis- 
consin territory, would save two days and the corresponding 
expense, by availing themselves of the new thoroughfare. 



188 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

The owners of the Erie and Kalamazoo railroad also inaugurated 
the Palmyra and Jacksonburg railroad; and its opening to 
Tecumseh was celebrated with the enthusiasm usual to such occas- 
ions, on the 9th of August, 1838. 

Such, in brief, is the history of the inception and construction 
of our pioneer railroad, chiefly interesting from the fact that it 
was the beginning of our now extended system of internal improve- 
ments, and the first section constructed, of what is now one of the 
most extensive and prosperous railroad properties in the United 
States. 

The territorial Legislature on the 29th of January, 1832, char- 
tered the Detroit and St. Joseph Railroad Company for the con- 
struction of a road from the city of Detroit to the mouth of the 
St. Joseph river, traversing the counties of Wayne, Washtenaw, 
Jackson, Calhoun and Kalamazoo, the latter county then com- 
prising all the territory lying between Calhoun and Lake Michi- 
gan. Work under this charter was commenced by the company 
and some progress was made in its construction ; but upon the 
admission of the State to the Union, and the adoption by the Leg- 
islature of a comprehensive scheme of public works to be under- 
taken and controlled by State authority, the Detroit and St, 
Joseph was purchaseil, and by legislative enactment, subsequently 
became the Michigan Central. 

March 7th, 1834, the act to incorporate the Detroit and Pontiac 
Railroad Company was appi'oved, and for a second time a railroad 
between Detroit and Pontiac was authorized. By tiiis time, how- 
ever, legislators seem to have become more familiar with the char- 
acter and requirements of a railroad corporation, and the new 
charter conceded substantial franchises to the incorporators, which, 
though often attacked in the courts and Legislature, have remained 
unimpaired until the present time. In the mutations incident to 
corporate history, the Detroit and Pontiac is now known as the 
Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee, and long years since was 
completed to Lake Michigan, and has become one of the most 
important thoroughfares of our State. 

Some twelve miles of this road was in use for horse-cars as 
early as 1835, but the first locomotive did not appear upon its 
track until the autumn of 1838, when a little machine not much 
larger than a cooking stove on wheels was placed in service and 
continued to be the sum total of motive power employed for 



ADDRESS OF MAJOR W. C. RANSOM. 189 

many years. The early patrons of this road used to claim that 
on one occasion a citizen of Detroit, who avaikd himself of its 
trains to make the journey to Pontiac and back, was so long 
absent from home that his children grew out of his recollection ; 
and that it was no rare thing for notes given by persons upon 
the eve of departure to Royal Oak, or Birmingham, to outlaw 
before their return. 

Charters authorizing the construction of railroads between 
Komeo and Mt. Clemens, and Shelby and Detroit, were also passed 
by the territorial Legislature, granting, in pi-rpetuity, franchises 
of the most liberal character to the persons named in the acts ; 
such charters, however, were not utilized, and upon the organi- 
zation of the State government, by common consent, the further 
work of building railroads seems to have been accepted as among 
its principal functions. 

Probably there has never been a time in the history of our 
country, when impracticable sehemes of internal improvement 
and extravagant policies for the development of the State's 
resources, were more likely to meet with favorable consideration 
than in 18o(). The spirit of speculation was rife, paper money 
" tiat " in character in all that the term implies, was seeking 
investment, and no enterprise, however grand its proportions, was 
without friends for its execution. 

The first Governor, Stevens T. JNIason, was a most enthusiastic 
believer in the splendid future of Michigan and its ability to carry 
to successful conclusion systems of internal improvement which 
would leave nothing to be desired in that particular, and attract 
to the State an immigration commensurate with the advantages 
aflbrded by broad and enterprising policies. 

It was already becoming the i)racLice of the Federal Govern- 
ment to donate to the new States liberal grants of lands in aid of 
the establishment and maintenance of schools and universities, 
and the construction of works of internal improvement. This 
State had attached an ordinance to its Constitution, asking Con- 
gress for such assistance to build one or more railroads or canals 
from its eastern boundary to Lake Michigan ; and it was believed 
that the application would meet with a favorable response in the 
near future; a belief realized in the act of Congress, approved 
September 4, 1841, by the provisions of which Michigan, in com- 
mon with other Western States, received five hundred thousand 



190 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

acres of land, the proceeds of which were to be devoted to pur- 
poses of internal improvement. Relying upon the probability of 
such a grant, and the anticipated rapid settlement of the State, 
Governor Mason in his first message recommended the most 
liberal legislation for carrying forward an extensive system of 
public works. But that the State should be in position to exer- 
cise at least partial control of the same, he favored the idea of its 
becoming a large stockholder in such enterprises ; and the nego- 
tiation of a loan on its faith, in anticipation of resources to be 
derived from the sales of lands, that might thereafter be granted 
for internal improvement purposes. 

The Legislature fully shared the enthusiasm of their youthful 
Governor, and entered with alacrity upon the adoption of his sug- 
gestions for the development of the new State. A scheme for the 
construction of three railroads was determined upon, and a loan 
of five millions of dollars for that purpose authorized upon the 
credit of the State — these roads severally to be known as the 
Central, Southern and Northern, extending across the State. The 
first, from Detroit to St. Joseph ; the second, from Monroe to New 
Buffalo ; and the third, from Port Huron to Grand Haven. While 
during the years of distress and disaster that followed closely upon 
the era of inflation which so shaped our early legislation, the policy 
of our first State administration met with popular disapproval as 
being unwise and extravagant, who, in the light of the present 
situation, can gainsaj' the fact, that, after all, at the close of the 
first fifty years of our history, the estimate then made of the future 
necessities of our State, for a comi)reheusive system in the interest 
of internal transportation, does not to-day stand fully vindicated? 

The recommendations of the Governor were practically ap- 
proved by the Legislature, so far as the works to be undertaken 
were concerned, but instead of merely giving to the State a con- 
trolling interest as a stockholder, it was thought the better policy 
to build the roads at the entire expense of the public treasury, 
and to maintain the operation and management solely under the 
State control. Although it required but a few years of practical 
experience to change popular sentiment with regard to the ques- 
tion which resulted in the sale of the railroads to corporations 
chartered for their purchase, and a provision in the Constitution 
of 1850, which forever inhibited the State from being interested in 
or engaged in carrying on any work of internal improvement, 



ADDKESS OF MAJOR W. (\ RANSOM. 191 

still there is to-day a strong seutiment in this State, and most of 
the others, which may be said to be a growing seutiment, that the 
public interest would be largely subserved by State control of one 
or more important lines in a position to fix and enforce transpor- 
tation rates upon other roads connecting therewith or running 
parallel thereto. Whether in fact such a control would be in the 
direction of a sound policy, I shall not discuss upon this occasion, 
but that it is advocated by economists who have given much 
thought to u solution of the vexed question of transportation rates 
and traffic discrimination that are now and for some time past 
have agitateti the country, is alluded to merely to show that the 
views of Gov. Mason, by him urged fifty years ago, were not so 
entirely impolitic and unsupported by the logic of a sound 
economy as many of us have been accustomed to believe. But 
with five millions of money supposed to be in hand, and liberal 
land grants from Congress in sight, operations were commenced 
upon all the proposed works; and for a time everything pro- 
gressed to the satisfaction of the most sanguine. The Central and 
Southern roads, traversing as they did the most })opulous counties, 
and being on the line over which the westward march of empire 
was making its way, as was natural, were more favored by the 
Legislature and the commissioners of internal improvement under 
whose administration the construction was carried forward. Not 
a little friction was engendered between the two rival routes, each 
anxious to outdo the other and to make the fastest progress 
towards the western boundary of the State. This feeling of jeal- 
ou.sy occasionally showed itself in a practical way, and there is a 
tradition that when the road bed of the Central was ready and 
waiting for the iron, between Detroit and Dearborn, one of the 
commissioners residing at Monroe, anticipated the vessel freighted 
with rails intended for the rival of the Southern, when off the 
mouth of the River Kaisin, and running her about a mile up that 
stream, had the iron thrown overboard in seven feet of water, and 
ordered the schooner to return to Buffalo for another load. This 
sharp practice however, availed the "Independent State" but 
little. Henry ^\'illis, of ship canal fame, in charge of track lay- 
ing on the Central, learned of the whereabouts of the iron, took a 
scow in tow of the little steamer "Ruby," and proceeding to Mon- 
roe a few nights after, fished up every bar of the rail, carried it to 
Detroit, had it securely spiked to the stringers, before the Monroe 
Commissioner was aware that it had o:one. 



192 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

But it is not necessary to the purpose of this paper that I should 
continue in detail the progress made in completing our railroad 
system under the auspices of the State. Upon the Northern line 
after clearing and partially grading about eighteen miles west 
of Port Huron, further work was abandoned and attention in 
that section principally devoted to the completion of what was 
known as the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal, a work intended to 
connect the waters of the Clinton and Kalamazoo rivers, and so 
save to commerce the then tedious voyage by way of Mackinaw 
Straits. A few days since, I traveled for some distance upon a 
railroad car in the dry bed of the abandoned canal, while an old 
timber dock that we passed hard by, in the last stages of decay, 
spoke, more forcibly than words, of the changes wrought in fifty 
years. 

Upon the two principal lines work was continued by the State 
with all the energy that its disordered finances and the general 
depression that followed upon the speculative period contempor- 
aneous with the admission and first three years of our history, 
would permit. The fiscal agents charged with the negotiations 
of the five million loan had failed to realize the proceeds from the 
parties with whom placed, and what has been so long known 
upon the State ledgers as the " part-paid bonds," became a legacy 
for the future to care for. Of the remainder, all but about $400,- 
000, as stated by the report of the Committee of Inquiry, headed 
by the now venerable A, T. McReynolds, to the Senate of 1841, 
had been scattered to the four winds of heaven, and the only 
available resources left for the prosecution of the public improve- 
ments were warrants payable in internal improvements lands, and 
worth in market from thirty-five to sixty cents on the dollar. 
Truly, Michigan at that low ebb of her financial fortunes, might 
have anticipated for her own the legend of the Kansas Great 
Seal, "Ad astra per aspera,''' with a touching regard for the "eter- 
nal fitness of things." 

But with characteristic persistency work was continued upon 
the roads in the face of every discouragement until in 1846 the 
Central had been completed to Kalamazoo, and the Southern to 
Hillsdale. Early in the session of the Legislature for that year a 
syndicate of Boston capitalists, through their agent, proposed to 
the State authorities the purchase of the Central road. The pro- 
position was favorably received by the Legislature to whom it 



ADDRESS OF MAJOR W. G. RANSOM. 193 

was referred by the Governor ; and a bill chartering the Michigan 
Central Railroad Company, and j)roviding for the sale to it of the 
Michigan Central Railroad for the sum of $2,000,000, in due time 
became a law. Inspired by the enterprise of the Boston people a 
number of gentlemen, for the most part residing in Monroe, in this 
State, came to the Legislature with a proposition to purchase the 
Michigan Southern. The proposition was favorably entertained 
by that body; and a law passed disposing of the road, the price to 
be paid for the property being five hundred thousand dollars. 
The companies, chartered in connection with the sale, were 
promptly organized, and the roads transferred to the purchasers ; 
and from that time Michigan has left the building of railroads 
witliin her borders entirely to private enterprise. 

When the State disposed of her railroads there were remaining 
unappropriated nearly one-half of the lands granted by Congress 
for their construction. These lands had been selected from the 
public domain with special reference to their value for their tim- 
ber and agricultural purposes; and without doubt in these qualities 
were unexcelled by any equal area in the State. Had a wise 
policy prevailed, no disposition would have been maile of the resi- 
due of the grant until, in the course of yeai's, sales at increased 
value would have returned millions of dollars to Michigan's ex- 
chequer. As it was, improvident legislation that no remonstrance 
of faithful and far-seeing executives could avert, appropriated the 
lands for every wild scheme that ingenuity or stupidity could de- 
vise ; until, in a short time, what should have been held as a most 
valuable reserve for the benefit of the State at large, was squan- 
dered and "frittered away," in most instances, to no permanent 
usefulness whatever. 

With the acquisition of its property the Michigan Central rail- 
road company at once commenced the extensions and improve- 
ments that have made it the chief railroad property in our State. 
Under the most able and energetic administration of John W. 
Brooks, its first general superintendent and chief engineer, its 
east terminal at the Campus Martius in Detroit was transferred 
to the foot of Third street, and the splendid river front which now 
gives the Central its unequalled dockage and ware-house room, 
was built u{) from the bed of the river. The old line was re- 
located and reconstructed along its former tortuous course up the 
Huron Valley, relaid with heavy rail to Kalamazoo ; and in the 
13 



194 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

spring of 1849, the locomotive for the first time roused the echoes 
among the dunes of Lake Michigan. 

The Southern company, lacking in financial ability, were less 
prompt in carrying out the engagements required by its charter ; 
and it was not until after much supplementary legislation and an 
almost entire change in corporate ownership, that work was at 
last commenced in good earnest. From that time the strife 
between it and its old rival, for the first entrance into Chicago, 
waxed very warm ; and so close was the race that both crossed 
the corporate limits of that city, within a few hours of each other, 
in May, 1«52. 

Soon after, the other of the first trio of Michigan railroads 
resumed the work of extension; and November 22, 1858, the 
Detroit and Pontiac, re-christened as the Detroit and Milwaukee 
railway, ran its first train into Grand Haven, and Governor 
Mason's prophesy that within twenty-five years from the admis- 
sion of the State three railroads would cross its territory from 
east to west, met with fulfillment. 

From that time on, the growth of our railroad system has been 
one of steady progress, always a little perhaps in advance of the 
development of the State, but aiding materially to that end. 
While our legislation has not permitted our municipalities, as in 
many States, to bankrupt themselves in recklessly issuing their 
bonds in aid of railroad schemes, still so liberal and conservative 
has been its character in the granting of franchises, and the limi- 
tations of privileges in the case of railroad enactments, that capital 
has rarely been lacking for the construction of any really needed 
work. 

The Michigan Central Railroad Company, with thirty miles of 
track February 5th, 1838, on the 31st day of December last was 
operating within the limits of this State 1020.31 miles. The Lake 
Shore and Michigan Southern (the old Erie and Kalamazoo of 
1837), with thirty-five miles of track, at the close of last year was 
operating in Michigan 576.10 miles. 

The old Detroit and Pontiac road, with only 25 miles of track 
in 1844, is now but the smallest section of the Grand Trunk of 
Canada system, which controls and operates within the limits of 
our State, 577.96 miles of road. 

The entire miles of track in the State January 1st, 1886, were 
5,220, belonging to sixty ditterent corporations, under thirty-four 
separate managements. 



ADDRESS OF MAJOR W. C. KANSOM. 195 

The amount of stock in these companies held in Michigan Janu- 
uary 1st, 1885, was reported at $10,758,760.71; their total 
indebtedness $345,787,796.36, or 830,231.51 per mile ; their total 
stock and debt was $624,580,650.67, or $54,3 i8. 52 per mile ; their 
total cost for Michigan, $222,194,232.28; the total income for 
Michigan, was $26,847,797.76; total operating expenses, $19,956,- 
786.32. Total passengers carried, 24,782,322. Total tons of 
freight moved, 36,479,844. Total freight forwarded from Michi- 
gan stations, 12,575,793 tons. Average rate per mile for passenger 
fares, 02.539 cents. Average rate per ton per mile freight carried, 
000.904. 

The companies for the year 1885 paid into the State treasury 
taxes amounting to the sum of $634,817.28. 

Within the limits of the State there were at the date of the last 
reports to the railroad department, 1,059 railroad stations and 
20,030 employes. Our railroad lines extend into every county of 
the lower peninsula, save seven ; ^nd of that at first despised 
Upper Peninsula, not a single county is now without railroad 
facilities. In addition to the six roads that practically run across 
the State from east to west, two meridian lines extend from our 
southern boundary to the straits of Mackinaw ; while shore lines 
along the lakes that wash either border, are rapidly extending 
northward to the same terminal. 

In the construction of this comprehensive system of railroads, 
congressional grants of 3,65o, 936.78 acres of land have been con- 
ceded; to which the State has added 1,595,840.66 acres more of 
swamp lands, making a grand total of 5,252,777.44 acres received 
by our railroad corporations, the proceeds of which will go far 
towards meeting the cost of at present unproductive roads. 

Michigan at the close of the first half century of her political 
history, in all that goes to make a State prosperous aad wealthy 
and its people contented and happy, may most justly claim to be 
the peer of any in the Union, Foremost among the causes that 
have led up to this felicitous result, is the rapidity with which her 
material resources have been developed through the instrumental- 
ty of her railroads. By a constant recognition of that fact, and 
the enforcement of the legislative policy which seeks to protect 
the interests of capital alike with that of the people whom it 
serves, its continued investment in our railroad properties may be 
expected, and their permanent usefulness assured. 



196 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE COMMON SCHOOLS OF 

MICHIGAN AND OF THE STATE 

NORMAL SCHOOL. 

Peof. J. M. B. SILL. 

I am asked to contribute two brief sketches, one outlining the 
history of the common schools, and the other a similar paper on 
the State Normal school. The limits of time and space pres- 
cribed to me, forbid anything more than a condensed statement 
of what seems to be the salient facts in the history of these State 
institutions. There is no room for much in the direction of infer- 
ences or suggestions. 

The term " Common Schools " means all the free public schools 
of the Commonwealth, supported to a greater or less extent by a 
common public fund, and devoted to the primary and secondary 
education of the youth of the State. 

Thus the term includes not only the isolated country schools, 
but also the Union and High Schools of the cities and villages, 
and the extended systems of free public education, sustained and 
supported in all our towns of any considerable size. 

They are common schools because they are common ground 
where all, whether rich or poor, may meet on a standing of perfect 
equality ; they are institutions wherein in the seeking of a com- 
mon benefit and in the pursuit of a common interest, distinctions 
of race and sect, however bitter and sharply drawn, ought to be 
and are forgotten, and the youth of diverse and even unfriendly 
sects and nationalities are, by the very nature of their association, 
trained to a fraternal regard and wholesome mutual respect. 

The common schools and the Normal school are fitly united in 
these sketches. The latter is an outgrowth from the necessities 
of the former. The chief educational thought, the grand aim of 
the State being the advancement of her youth in intelligence and 
in the knowledge essential to good and useful citizenship by 
means of her common schools, the Normal school was established 
to render these more efficient in the performance of the great 
work assigned to them. 

The first requisite of good elementary instruction is a sufficient 
supply of earnest, devoted aud intelligent teachers, and to meet 
this want and to secure to the common schools their highest 
measure of efficiency, the Normal school was established and has 
be«u cheerfully maintained by the State. 



ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 107 

Indeed, so close is the connection between the subjects of these 
sketches, that most authorities class normal schools as a mere 
division of common schools. I shall first treat of the common 
schools. 

THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 

Fir^t, — as to their resources: 

In 17'S.^, shortly after the general government had taken pos- 
session of the vast area of unoccupied lands lying west of Penn- 
slyvania, north of the Ohio river and eastward from the Mississippi, 
one thirty-sixth part of this entire Northwest Territory was set 
apart and reserved " for the support of public schools," and the 
Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the same territory, 
affirmed this grant or reservation by declaring as follows: 
"Religion, moralitv and knowledge being necessary to good gov- 
ernment and the happiness of mankind, scliools and the means of 
education shall be forever encouraged." 

An act, also of the Congress of the confederation, dated in 1804, 
making provision for the sale of lands in Indiana Territory com- 
prising the present States of Indiana, Michigan, Illiuftis and 
Wisconsin, again confirmed this dedication by expressly reserving 
from sale section No. It) in every township for the support of 
schools. 

When the Territory of Michigan was organized in 1"05, com- 
prising at that time the lower peninsula of this State, and also a 
narrow strip of land on the northern border of Indiana and Ohio, 
there was a further confirmation of the grant for school purposes 
secured by the acts mentioned above ; and in 1828 Congress 
placed these reserved lands under charge of the Territorial Gov- 
ernor and Council to care for them and to take measures to make 
them productive of an income for the purposes intended in the 
grant. Further, the Ordinance of 18:^6 admitting Michigan as a 
State into the Union, declares that "Section No. 16, in every 
township of the public lands, and where such section has been 
sold or otherwise disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto, and 
as contiguous as may be, shall be granted to the State for the use 
of schools." 

Of late some doubt has been thrown upon the motives of Con- 
gress in making this beneficent grant. It has been questioned 
whether it was not a desire to render the public lands salable to 



198 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

settlers, and so to make a way for the payment of the public 
debt, rather than a high sense of the value of popular education 
that prompted the gift. It is true that the close of the war of 
the Revolution found the General Government almost hopelessly 
encumbered with a great debt incurred in the exhausting though 
heroic and brilliantly successful struggle for independence ; that 
to the means for the extinction of this debt which was paralyzing 
the ambition and barring the prosperity of the new nation, the 
statesmen of the infant republic were directing their anxious 
thought and their most earnest endeavors. 

But there ought to be little sympathy with any attempt to 
ascribe to human action any motive lower or meaner than the best 
and highest that will fully explain and account for it, and, cer- 
tainly, we can afford to judge these patriotic men by the explana- 
tion which they themselves make in the famous declaration 
already quoted from the Ordinance of 1787. Even if it be 
granted that members of Congress had in view nothing more than 
enhancing the value of the public lands and making them more 
desirable to settlers, this act showed a quick appreciation of the 
fact that the American people set a high value on universal edu- 
cation, and they recognized this in granting what, of all things, 
would make such lands most desirable to settlers, viz., a provis- 
ion for perpetual aid to common schools. 

Certainly they were steadfast in the liberal policy first inau- 
gurated. The brief account which I have already given of the 
history of these dedicatory acts, shows, to the last, no variable- 
ness nor shadow of change in the wise and philanthropic policy 
first formulated in the Ordinance of 1785. 

In considering this first grant for the support of common 
schools, it is hardly necessary to say that the uniform method of 
survey of public lands lays it off into townships six miles square. 
This is the largest division of land known to the survey. Each 
township is subdivided into thirty-six sections, each one mile 
square, and containing six hundred and forty acres of lands. 
These sections are numbered consecutively, and section No. 16 is, 
as nearly as possible, the central section. 

The matter of the location of the section reserved for support of 
schools is significant. Why a central section was fixed upon 
becomes evident in view of the wording of the Ordinance of 1785, 
which prescribes that there shall be reserved from sale the lot (sec- 



ADDRESS OF PROF. .1. M. B. SILL. 199 

tion) No. 16 of every township for the maintenance of public 
schools within said township. 

It is plain that it was the original design of Congress to apply 
the moneys acquired by the sale of lands in each section 16 for 
the benefit only of the township in wliich such section was sit- 
uated. 

When Michigan sought admission to the Union, she profited by 
the experience of some of her sister States. They had taken the 
grant of land for school purposes under the formula of the Ordi- 
nance of 1785 as quoted above. There were many difficulties in 
the way of such an administration of the trust ; the chief one being 
that the sections numbered 16 differed immensely in value. Some 
of them were of sufficient value to afford a magnificent fund for 
the support of the schools in the township of which they were a 
part ; others being of little or no value for this or any other pur- 
pose. 

The proposition in reference to primary school lands made by 
the people of the proposed State to Congress, has already been 
quoted in this paper ; and it subsequently became a part of the 
ordinance admitting Michigan into the Union. It will be seen 
that the State took jurisdiction of these lands for the benefit of 
popular education, not in the several townships in which the sec- 
tions were located, but in the State as a whole. Of the wisdom 
of this alteration of the original plan of Congress, there can be no 
doubt. F. W. Shearman, then Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, in his valuable report for 1852, speaks of it as follows: "In 
taking the grant to the State, it avoided a multiplicity of officers 
otherwise located in diflferent counties ; it contributed and is still 
contributing in an unexampled manner to the education of all the 
youth of the whole State; it has saved many townships from ask- 
ing legislative aid, where the school section was unavailable, 
either from prior location by actual settlers, or where the section 
was covered with heavy timber, which prolonged the event of its 
being cleared for many years; and in many instances, saving not 
only time, labor and expense, but the means of education itself to 
the inhabitants of those townships where the section was entirely 
unavailable from natural causes, and relieving the inhabitants in 
such cases from the management of equivalent sections at a dis- 
tance from their townships." 

" In taking the grant to the State, there was a higher principle 



200 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

of equity involved in the relation to the whole people than would 
have obtained, had Congress refused to assent to the terms 
demanded in the ordinance of the (State) convention. If the 
original faith of Congress might be considered as pledged to the 
township, previous to the adoption of our Constitution, the inhabi- 
tants by their votes in adopting that instrument, decided in favor 
of a consolidation of the fund and its management by the Legis- 
lature for the common benefit of all the townships. Nor was such 
policy rendered less sound by the adoption of a system which 
avoided the repeated applications to Congress which have arisen 
in other States, and which left all questions connected with these 
lands to be settled by Congress and the State in its sovereign 
capacity, rather than by township jurisdictions, subordinate in 
their will and power, to the higher and more general interests of 
the whole people." 

The present condition of the Primary School fund and the his- 
tory of its helj)fuluess to free education in our State, are a splen- 
did and enduring memorial to the far seeing wisdom of the men 
who framed this proposition to Congress and gained its assent 
thereto. All the States since admitted have seen the wisdom of 
adopting the plan first devised and put in practice in Michigan. 

It is worthy of note, as showing the estimation in which free 
elementary education is and has been held both by Congress and 
by the people of this State, that all the grants of Congress, as well 
as the ordinance of the Constitution which submitted propositions 
for admission to the Union, speak of Section 16 as reserved for 
the maintenance of "Schools" or of "Public Schools," never speci- 
fying elementary schools; and yet universal consent has construed 
these words to mean only common or primary schools. And 
upon this accepted construction all subsequent legislation has 
been based. There has been no flinching or wavering. Higher 
institutions of learning are certainly schools, and if supported by 
the public, they are public schools; but, to this day, no serious 
attempt has ever been made to divert the fund to the support of 
anything but common schools maintained for the advantage of all 
the people. The [)romoters of universities and other institutions of 
advanced learning, have never attemj)ted under any technical con- 
struction to take a dollar from the fund arising from the sale or 
use of the sixteenth section dedicated, in the minds of its grantors 
and trustees, to the work of the popular education. 



ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 201 

The area of" land which is thus held by the State iu trust for 
the primary schools amounts to nearly 1,100,000 acres. Soon 
after this grant came under the control of the State it was a mat- 
ter of much discussion whether they should be leased or sold in 
order to secure a permanent income from them. In the end 
wise counsels prevailed. It w'as seen that the State could hardly 
make itself a landlord to an army of tenants, and take upon itself 
the task of attending to conducting a business so immense and yet 
so minute and exacting in its details. Accordingly it was de- 
cided that the lands should be sold and that the money received 
from the sales should be invested in a perpetual fund, the interest 
only of which should be devoted to the use of the primary 
schools. 

In 1837 tlie Legislature passed a law authorizing the Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, an office recently created by the 
Constitution, to sell lands by auction to the amount of one and 
one-half million dollars, the minimum price being S8.00 per acre, 
the terms of payment being orie-fourtl,i at the date of sale, and the 
remainder being in annual installments of five per cent., com- 
mencing five years after purchase ; the unpaid balance bearing 
interest at seven per cent. 

The sales thus authorized began in July, 1887, and within a 
little more than five years they amount ed to more than seven 
hundred thousand dollars, at an average of about -^12.00 i)er acre. 
This, it will be remembered, was in a time of inflated credit, 
fictitious values, and magnificent expectations, but l)efore the five 
years had elapsed the collapse came and the fund had already 
suflfered grievously. In many cases the remaining three-fourths of 
the purchase price was claimed to be in excess of the actual value. 
Many who had made valuable improvements on the lands pur- 
chased, yielded to the pressure of hard times, and submitted to 
forfeiture because they could not meet the annual interest. 

In 1840 the minimum price was reduced to five dollars per acre, 
and the time for the payment of the principal extended indefi- 
nitely ; but this relief was claimed to be entirely insufficient, and 
the purchasers again clamored for further concessions. In 1842 
the Legislature yielded again to the demands of those who desired 
to be relieved of the obligations to which they had voluntarily 
bound themselves. These demands were extraordinary in their 
nature, but were finally agreed to, and it was provided that, on 



202 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

application of the purchaser, the associate judges should examine 
any school lands purchased at 18.00 per acre, or over, and ap- 
praise its value in its actual condition at the time it was first 
bought, provided, that the reduction should not exceed forty per 
cent, of the original price. The difference between the appraised 
value and the contract price was to be credited to the purchaser. 
The following figures show the sudden creation of the school 
fund and its no less sudden collapse between the years 1837 and 
the close of 1842: 

Whole amount of sales including forfeited lands re-sold, and 

amount paid on lands previous to their forfeiture $739,638.01 

Deduct on account of forfeiture, reduction through new ap- 
praisal, and other losses 379,828.00 

Actual amount of fund in December, 1842 $359,809.41 

The condition of this fund at the close of the fiscal year 1885 
was as follows : 

In the hands of the State $3,184,190.01 

Due from purchasers of lands 293,155.69 

Total of the primary school fund $3,477,345.70 

This is a total increase of $3,117,536.29, or an average annual 
increase of $72,500 since 1842. 

At first the policy of loaning the moneys belonging to this 
fund to individuals was adopted by the State. This policy was 
soon abandoned ; but it survived long enough to cause a loss of 
nearly 112,000 to the fund. For many years a wise plan had 
been in operation in the investment of this fund and also the 
Swamp Land fund, of which some account will be given further on 
in this paper. As fast as the fund accumulates it is placed in the 
State Treasury and forms a perpetual loan to the State, and the 
faith of the State is pledged for the annual interest at the rate of 
seven per cent. Not only does the State pay interest upon moneys 
which have come in the treasury, but it assumes and guarantees 
the payment of all interest due from those purchasers who have 
paid but a part of the price agreed upon for school lands. Thus 
the fund is safe beyond all peradventure, and the wants of the 
schools are met by prompt payment of all accruing interest. This 
interest, formerly distributed once in the year, is now paid semi- 
annually to the several counties in amount proportionate to the 
number of persons between the ages of five and twenty years, 



ADDRESS OF PKOF. J. M. B. SILL. 203 

residing in each county, as shown by the school census, taken by 
authority of law in the autumn of each year. 

This fund, known as the Primary School Interest Fund, 
receives some small additions from time to time, which are due to 
a provision in the Constitution as follows : " All lands, the titles 
to which filial 1 fail from a defect of heirs, shall escheat to the 
State ; and the interest on the clear proceeds from the sales there- 
of shall be appropriated exclusively to the support of Primary 
Schools." 

Another and vastly more important and extensive addition to 
this fund became available first in the year 1881. This addition 
is due to the provision to be found in Section 1, Article XIV. of 
the Constitution : " All specific taxes, except those received from 
the mining companies of the Upi)er Peninsula, shall be applied in 
paying the interest of the Primary School, University and other 
educational funds, and the interest and principal of the State 
debt in the order herein recited, until the extinguishment of the 
State debt, other than the amounts due to educatit)ual funds, 
when such specific taxes shall be added to and constitute a part of, 
the Primary School Interest Fund." 

At the January term in 1881, the Supreme Court of Michigan, 
upon an amicable application for an interpretation, decided that 
the time indicated in the Constitution had arrived, inasmuch as 
the State debt, some portions of it not maturing until 1890, 
though not actually paid, was fully provided for in a sinking 
fund, made up of unused accunmlations of the specific taxes, 
and decreed that " any exces.s, apart from what shall be annually 
required to meet the annual interest accruing on the debt, must 
be held applicable under the Constitution, so long as there is no 
failure in the fund for the payment of the princij)al, to the Pri- 
mary School Interest Fund, and ought to be assigned thereto." 

Under this decision the specific taxes for each subsequent year, 
have first paid the interest on the unmatured debt, and on the 
educational funds, and the remainder has been divided among the 
counties as a part of the Primary School Interest Fund. On 
account of this large addition to the moneys available for distri- 
bution the amount per capita to each person of school age, was, 
in the spring of 1881, the first year in wliich'the surplus of specific 
taxes became available for school purposes, $1.06 against 47 cents 
in the year next preceding; an increase of more than one hundred 
and twenty-five per cent. 



204 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

The annual per capita arising from the interest of this fund had, 
in years previous to 1881, never exceeded 50 cents for each person 
of school age, and the rainirauni amount was reached in 1845, 
when it was only 28 cents. Before the addition of the surplus of 
the specific taxes in 1881, the annual additions through sales of 
land, had ceased to keep pace with the increase of the school popu- 
lation, and it had already fallen from its yield of 50 cents per 
annum in 1878 to 47 in 1880. 

Future accumulations to the original School Laud fund will doubt- 
less be slow and uncertain. It seems difficult to make any safe 
estimate as to the probable enlargement of the fund arising from 
this source. Superintendent Gregory's estimate of the possible 
maximum amount of the fund, made in 1859, was $4,868,022, 
which he, apparently fearful that the future would fail to justify 
his calculations, took prompt occasion in the next paragraph, to 
reduce to $4,000,000. If his last estimate was a safe one, the 
present margin of possible increase is only $522,645.00. But 
the specific tax resource is not likely to decrease, and after the 
actual extinction of the State debt, the amount which now goes to 
the payment of interest will be added to the amount distributable 
for the support of schools. 1 have dwelt, perhaps, disproportion- 
ately upon the history of this fund, because it is, as Supt. Shear- 
man in the report heretofore alluded to, says, " the foundation 
upon which the educational structure of Michigan * * * vvas 
laid." The amount of the income it has yielded is large, though 
it is insignificant when compared with the total cost of common 
school education in our Commonwealth, and stands in the relation 
of a small percentage to the amount for which the people of this 
State have freely taxed themselves in behalf of the schools ; but 
it has been exceedingly helpful at the times in which it was sorely 
needed. It has given courage to the fainting hearts of the friends 
of education in periods of deep discouragement and despondency. 
The little that it was able to do, was enough to educate the people 
up to a profound appreciation of the value of popular education. 
Without it, education, in this State, could never have made the 
substantial triumphs and the magnificent |)rogress which its history 
records, and of which we are so justly proud to-day. With it we 
have como to a point ^'herc the failure of any permanent educa- 
tional fund could have only a temporary efifect upon the prospects 
of our schools. The men and women of the present generation 



AIJDKKSS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 205 

are now thoroughly indoctrinated in their faith in the inestim- 
able value of universal intelligence. Whatever should be the 
cost to themselves, they will not withhold from their children the 
benefits and advantages which they themselves have enjoyed. 

Another fund for the support of common schools is what is 
known as the Primary School Five Per Cent. fund. This fund was 
created by the act of 1858, providing for the sale of the State 
swamp lands, which directed that one-half of the moneys received 
from the sales of such lands be disposed of in the same manner as 
the fund derived from the sale of the school lands, except that 
the State shall pay five instead of seven per cent, interest. 

This fund has been available for school purposes only since 
1863. In that year the fund amounted to §109,715.-12, the 
income therefore being S5,485.77. In the year 1885 the fund had 
increased to §31)1,882.57, yielding an income of $18,069.12. 

These two, the Primary School fund and the Primary School 
Five Per Cent. Fund are the permanent resources of the common 
schools. The additional moneys needed and expended for their 
adminiiitration come from other sources, as follows : 

1st. Township School Taxes: 

From the time the school system of Michigan was first organ- 
ized until the present date, a township tax for the support of 
schools has always been levied. At first it was required that it 
be a sum equal to the township income from the Primary School 
fund. An amendment in 1841 gave, to the electors of any town- 
ship, authority to raise for the support of schools any sum not 
exceeding one dollar for each person of school age in the town- 
ship. In 1848 another amendment provided that for 1845 and 
annually thereafter the supervisor in each township should assess 
for the su})port of schools one mill on each dollar of the total 
taxable valuation. This act, as well as the original one men- 
tioned above, was mandatory. This tax was changed as follows : 
In 1851 to two mills, in 1853 to one, in 1859 to two, and in 1879 
to one mill on the dollar. Xo changes have been made since the 
date last named. 

The jealous interest of the people in respect to their schools, is 
emphatically recorded in the law as to township levies, which ))re- 
scribes that " The Township treasurer shall retain in his hands 
out of the moneys collected by him, after deducting the amount 



206 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

of tax for township expenses, the full amount of the school taxes 
on the assessment roll, and hold the same subject to the warrant 
of the proper district officers." Thus nothing except the payment 
of township expenses is allowed to interfere with the receipt by 
the school authorities, of the whole amount of school tax assessed. 
Under this law failure to collect any portion of the tax levied on 
the township can hardly affect the portion allotted to the support 
of education. The schools take precedence of the demands of the 
county and State. The requirement on supervisors to assess one 
mill (sometimes two, as shown above), on the dollar of the total 
valuation of taxable property in each township was formerly 
in defiance of the plain letter of the law, evaded by that officer in 
many townships. As shown by the reports of the State Superin- 
tendent, this tax in 1845, the first year in which the law was in 
full force, yielded an income of $5,521. The yield of this tax in 
1885 was $679,279.75. 

2d. Resources arising from direct taxation. 

The first enactment looking to the establishment of common 
schools, was made in 1827, nearly ten years before the admission 
ofMicliigan to the Union. This act provides for the raising of 
school revenues by district taxation; and this general plan was 
adhered to from that day to this. The power to levy such taxes 
has been much modified by legislative enactments, but it has sur- 
vived all changes, and has been, from the beginning, the source 
of by far the largest revenues which the people have applied to 
the establishment and maintenance of the common schools. For 
instance, the report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
for the year 1885, shows that of the money raised for school pur- 
poses, the amount of $2,700,030.23 came from this source, 
against |>1,384,94;}.59, the sum yielded by the township mill tax 
and the primary school fund combined, and against $1,963,319.10 
received from all other sources. Superintendent Gower's report 
for 1879 shows the relative yield of the various sources of rev- 
enue for the school year 1868-9 as follows : District taxes for all 
purposes, $2,049,755.29 against $723,396.36 coming from the two- 
mill tax and the primary school fund combined, and against 
$1,029,802.67, received from all other sources. In this year it 
must be remembered that the township assessment was two mills 
on the dollar, instead of one mill in 1884. In the early history 
of schools, the power of districts to raise money for school pur- 



ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 207 

poses was closely limited. In late years, repeated araendiuents to 
the law gave the electors of districts almost unlimited power in 
this direction. It was found, however, that rivalry between dis- 
tricts, and the zeal of the people for schools and for costly build- 
ings in which to operate them, not unfre({uently outran their dis- 
cretion and their financial ability. Unwise expenditures in be- 
half of the schools, had their natural effect, and a strong reaction, 
dangerous to progress in education, set in. These facts led the 
Legislature of 1875 to set narrower limits to the power of taxing 
of districts. The restricting amendment of 1875 remains in force 
at this time. It limits the power of districts to levy taxes for the 
purchase of sites and the erection of buildings in any one year as 
follows: Those having less than ten children of school age (be- 
tween the ages of five and twenty years) are limited to $250.00 ; 
Those having between ten and thirty children to $^500.00 ; those 
having between thirty and fifty children of said age to $1,000.00. 

For other purposes of the schools, excluding the amount re- 
quired for wages of teachers, fuel, or other incidental expenses, 
the amount raised must not exceed one-half the amounts men- 
tioued above. The amount which each district may raise for 
payment of teachers, fuel, and other regular incidental expenses, 
is not limited by law, except that districts having less than thirty 
children of legal school age, must not raise a sum exceeding $50.00 
per month, for the period during which school is held in such 
district. This last levy is, under the present law, determined by 
the district board. The amount of all other district school taxes 
being determined by a vote of the electors at an annual school 
meeting held for this and other purposes. 

3rd. For many years preceding 1869 a portion of the funds, 
enough to make up all deficiencies in the current expenses of the 
common schools, not provided for by the means already described, 
was raised by a tax upon parents and guardians of the children 
that attended school. The proportion of this tax payable by in- 
dividual patrons of the schools was determined by the number of 
days of attendance of the children seat by them. 

The law provided for the collection of this tax by severe 
measures, including distress and sale of property. For many 
years the rate-bill was perhaps the most serious obstacle in the 
way of the success and progress of the schools. It is plain that 
no system of public schools can flourish under such a regime. 



208 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Schools conducted on this plan, will perhaps have a fair attendance 
at the opening of a term, and so long as the funds provided by 
the public were sufficient to maintain them, but they can hardly 
survive the exhaustion of such funds. 

In such cases, there was uncertainty as to what amount the 
rate-bill might call for. Poor men could not afford to send their 
children longer, and sordid and avaricious men would not ; so 
children began at once to be withdrawn. Then came the inevi- 
table panic, because as numbers decreased, heavier and heavier 
expenses must be met by those remaining. As a consequence, 
studies were sadly interrupted and, in many cases, the schools 
were broken up long before the date agreed upon for closing them. 

This matter of rate-bills was the crowning discouragement of 
all friends of education. 

The State Superintendents regularly in their yearly communi- 
cation, pointed out to the people and the Legislature the hopeless- 
ness of anything like genuine prosperity under such a condition 
of affairs, and burdened their annual reports with unfailing 
lamentations over the mischief and the useless waste entailed by 
the rate-bill system. 

The Constitution of 1850 recognized the evils of such a method 
in the conduct of the schools and required the Legi:«lature to pro- 
vide for free schools, at a date not later than 1855 ; but for rea- 
sons which are difficult now to understand, legislative action on 
this most important matter was deferred for fourteen long years 
after the expiration of the time set by the Constitution ; and not 
until the year 18()!*, were the rate-bill laws repealed and the com- 
mon schools made truly and absolutely free. Thus, at last, and 
after much tribulation and contest against opposition, Michigan 
took her stand with those who believe education to be one of the 
inalienable rights of man ; that the highest safety to the State lies 
in the intelligence of her citizens ; that it is right, in self-defence, 
if upon no higher ground, to tax property in order to add to the 
value of man. Thus she gave good, plain recognition to the 
principle that the child belongs not only to the parent, but to the 
State as well ; to the parent in an especial manner in its earlier 
years, while it is still within the jurisdiction of parental control, 
but to the State almost exclusively by-and-bye ; that she has the 
right to protect the reversionary interest in the coming citizen, 
and to have something to say as to the kind and amount of pre- 



ADDRESS OK I'KOF. J. M. B SILL. 209 

paratioii for useful and loyal citizenship which must be made in 
the period of childhood and youth, if made at all ; and that as a 
future, responsible member of society, the child has rights which 
neither the poverty nor tlie avarice, or indifference of parents can 
justly defeat, and whose demands it is the duty of the State to 
provide for, at the common expense. 

Making the schools free to all, is a long step in the right direc- 
tion. This policy at least removes the chief obstacle to universal 
education, and leaves the parent who willfully defrauds his child 
of his most valuable inheritance, and the State of her undoubted 
right to intelligent citizenship, with but a slender excuse for so 
great a wrong. 

In other w'ords, the establishment of free common schools, to 
be maintained at the common expense, tenders to all the oppor- 
tunities for acquiring an elementary education. It opens the doors 
to all ; it freely invites all ; but it is the unquestionable right of 
the State to go further than this. She may not only say to the 
citizen, "I offer you the means of the, free education of your chil- 
dren. The school-house doors are open to all. If poverty bars 
the way of progress in intelligence to any, I have broken the 
barrier down. The property of the commonwealth, receiving its 
compensatory benefit in the safety and security which spring from 
the intelligence of the great mass of citizens, and from progress 
in culture and in the arts, shall bear rightfully the cost of the 
education of your children." But the State may go further, and 
say, " Having offered these advantages, I demand that you shall, 
for the good of your children and for the security of society take 
proper advantage of them. The right to levy taxes for the sup- 
port of schools can be justified only on the ground that they are 
necessary to public safety and well being, and this right includes 
the right to require attendance upon them. Your children are 
your own, but they are my wards as well. They are peculiarly 
yours in infancy and childhood, but in the rush of years, the day 
soon comes, when they are yours no longer, when they belong to 
the State and to the world, and when, if they are ill-prepared for 
the duties of life, if they are ignorant and depraved, the curse 
falls not on you alone, but on society at large." 

Later legislation has taken this more advanced ground. I 
refer to the compulsory attendance laws which require the parents 
and guardians of children between the ages of eight and fourteen 
14 



210 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

years, to see that such children have at least four months of attend- 
ance annually upon the public schools, or an equivalent in study 
at home or in private schools. No serious effort has yet been 
made for the enforcement of these laws, and there are undoubtedly 
serious difficulties in the way of such enforcement. It is a prob- 
lem, yet to be worked out, in western states ; but its solution 
must come, for it is vitally connected with the welfare of the 
republic. Here and elsewhere, illiteracy is gaining ground. The 
people must see to it that the downward course is checked, or free 
institutions will be put in deadly peril, and ultimately perish. 

As I have intimated above, compulsory laws are, in this State, 
a dead letter. Is it not time to vivify them ? Is it not time that 
a thorough and vigorous campaign in behalf of general education 
be begun and carried on, until the strongholds of ignorance are 
taken by storm ? Is it safe to open our doors to all creation, and 
invite all creation to make itself at home with us, and offer great 
inducements to it to accept the invitation, unless, at the same time, 
we compel at least a moderate degree of intelligence to be acquired 
by our citizens of foreign birth ? 

The census of 1880 shows that Michigan brought the ranks of 
Dative born illiteracy down to the extent of two and one half 
thousand iu the decade just preceding 1880, but that in spite of 
this decrease there was a net increase as stated above. 

The existence of this law among Michigan statutes, and the 
discussions that have attended its enactment, and the amendments 
to it hitherto made, have called attention to this subject, and so, 
even in the interval of failure to execute it, have boon productive 
of some good ; but a law too long disregarded, falls into popular 
contempt. It will be indeed unfortunate if this law is allowed to 
lapse into this condition. Much is to be done before its enforce- 
ment can be secured. It will be obliged to meet opposition from 
the greed of manufacturing corporations, which sometimes, in 
their employment of children of tender age, subordinate every 
interest to the solution of the problem of cheapness of production; 
from the indifference and selfishnesss of depraved and ignorant 
parents; and from those, also, whom pressing and urgent daily 
want seems almost to compel to the coining of the health ami future 
happiness of their offspring into the means of meeting the merci- 
less necessities of to-day. 

It must also meet the hostility of those who, in a false spirit of 



ADDRESS OF PROF. J. yi. B. SILL. 211 

exaggerated American independence, will insist that in the execu- 
tion of such a law, the State is interfering with their rights to do 
as they please with their own, forgetting that the State and the 
child both have rights, the one to decent, intelligent and progres- 
sive citizenship, and the other to an opportunity to make the most 
of the gifts which the good Father has given him. 

No other view of the limit of the rights of the j)arent is tenable. 
The parent has no right to starve his child, or cripple or dwarf 
his material organs ; and should he attempt such a policy, society 
would at once interfere in a way to be understood and remembered. 
Nor has he any better right for his own interest or for the advan- 
tages of present convenience, to imperil his child's moral and 
intellectual future, and to dwarf his spiritual life in its tender 
beginnings. 

There is much to be done, much prospective cost in money and 
in effort. Tt must be provided that there be room for all in the 
schools, and that the force of teachers be; sufficient for the instruc- 
tion of all. This means a very coilsiderable outlay, especially in 
the cities. There must be efficient and fearless officers, charged 
with the duty of a thorough enforcement of the law. 

Complaints against offenders must not be left to the neighbors 
of those who break the law. Society must also step in to the help 
of those who are too poor to take the whole burden. 

It is a project of great magnitude, but it is also a project whose 
importance it is almost impossible to overestimate. 

Illiteracy with its attendant evils and dangers, can be greatly 

. reduced, if not totally wiped out ; but nothing less than persistent 

and untiring effort can secure this beneficent result. It is not too 

late yet to do much towards the accomplishment of this end before 

the end of the present decade. 

We owe it to the good name of Michigan that the census of 
1890 shall show a better state of things. We cannot afford that 
one in every forty-three of our native born citizens above ten 
years shall be unable either to read or write. 

In addition to the sources of increase already noted, there are 
two others which require mere mention. One of these is what is 
known as the dog-tax. There is an assessment made on the 
owners of dogs. The moneys thus raised are devoted, first, to the 
establishment of a fund for settlement of claims for damages sus- 
tained by owners of sheep by reason of having such sheep killed 



212 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

or wounded by dogs, and the surplus, under certain limitations, 
are apportioned among the several school districts of the township 
in which taxes are levied. 

The portion of this tax applied to the support of common 
schools, has, in some years, reached a considerable amount. The 
reports of the Superintendent usually combine this account with 
several others, but the amount separately reported in 1867 was 
$25,812.92. 

The remaining resource of the common schools is the tuition 
paid, mainly in the cities and larger towns, by children of non- 
resident parents. This, in the year 1885, amounted to $50,023.72, 
as reported by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

I have used much of the whole space allotted to me, in detail- 
ing the resources of the common schools, in order that I may be 
able to draw a sharp line between the two great sources of income 
which have made possible their establishment and their continuous 
maintenance. 

These resources may be classified thus: 

First. Moneys received from land grants, and second, moneys 
raised from the taxes levied upon themselves by the people of the 
State. 

The people of Michigan are not entitled to any considerable 
amount of credit for the first. 

They have shown much wisdom and some folly in their method 
of caring for this trust, but the trust itself is in the nature of a 
gift, and has not come directly from the pockets of the people. 

But the second source of revenue shows what the people have 
done, and are willing to do for their common schools. 

In the year ending September 1, 1885, the total expenditures 
for common schools in Micliigan was $4,728,940.54. Of this 
amount $261,190.82 came from the income of the land grants, 
and all the remainder, viz., 14,467,750.22, was, in one form of 
taxation or another, paid by the people and the property of the 
State. In other words, for every dollar coming from the land 
grants, Michigan taxed herself more than $17. In still other 
words, the schools received from the land grants a little more 
than five per cent, of their cost for maintenance ; and the people 
paid something more than 94 per cent, of the sum required. 

It is not practicable, with the data at hand, to make a similar 
comparison for the entire time covered by our existence as a 



ADDRESS OF PROF. J. ^r. B. SILL. 213 

State; but I am satisfied tluit the proportions for the whole fifty 
years would not differ very materially from those shown for 1885. 

The figures for a few years taken at random and at considerable 
intervals, justify such a conclusion. For instance, the showing 
of the years 1864-1873 inclusive, is as follows : The total expen- 
diture for these years was >5!21, 237,879, and of this |!l9,614,o00— 
or nearly 93 per cent.,, w^as the yield of taxation in one form or 
another, and the remaining $1,623,579 came from the income of 
the land grants. 

In the year 1874 the income of the land grants yielded about 
six per cent, of the means used in defraying the expenses of the 
schools; and in 1876 the amount realized from this source was 
less than six per cent, of the total expenditure. 

In this connection another point is worthy of notice. Of course 
the amount realized on the proceeds of land grants depends on 
two factors: the amount of the fund drawing interest and the 
percentage thereon which the State chooses to pay. If the peo- 
ple of the State, through their representatives, elect to pay a 
larger sum in interest for the use of the school funds in its hands, 
than it would need to pay on its bonds in the open market, the 
excess over current rates thus paid, ought to be credited to the 
good will of the people, rather than to the land grants themselves. 
Now the State pays seven per cent, on the proceeds of the sale of 
the Primary School lands, and five per cent, on money received 
from the sale of one-half of swamp lands. That is to say, on 90 
per cent, of the school trust funds, the State pays seven per cent, 
interest for the support of schools, and on ten per cent, of such 
trust fund, it pays five per cent. 

On this showing, is it an exaggeration to say, that something 
like thirty per cent, of the amount of the income supposed to be 
derived from the permanent i'uiids belonging to the primary 
schools, is, in fact, raised by taxation, and is, really, a gift of the 
people of the State, to promote the interests of the common 
schools ? 

Our representative in Congress from the First District of Michi- 
gan, is reported to have said in connection witii the Blair Educa- 
tional Bill, that the entire proceeds of the land grants to the com- 
mon schools in Michigan, would hardly suffice to operate these 
schools for a single year. He was right. The latest published 
report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, is for the year 
1885. 



214 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

On September 30 of that year, the total amount of Common 
School funds yet realized from the land grants and upon which 
the vState pays interest, was $3,838,71^8.27; and the expenditures 
for the year, exclusive of library moneys, amounted to $4,092,- 
765.38. To this sum add, say, 5 per cent, as interest on the 
$11,267,056.00 worth of school property, in buildings, sites, ap- 
paratus, etc., and you have a balance of expenditure in one year 
over the accumulated principal of the land grant funds of -$1,417, - 
399. 

Taking out of the account the sum named as interest on the 
investment, and it will be found that in the year 1884, the whole 
accumulations of the land grant funds would have met but little 
more than three-fourths of the expenditure made in behalf of 
common schools, for the twelve months named. 

We hear so much concerning the magnificent fund which sup- 
ports the common schools of Michigan, and so little of the en- 
deavor and self-sacrifice of the people in sustaining them, that it 
has seemed well to set the facts forth plainly. 

The fund is a magnificent one, and its value to the cause of 
free education can hardly be overestimated ; but the fact remains 
that thus far the common schools of Michigan have depended 
mainly on moneys contributed directly by the people themselves. 

In the future the part that the income from land grants will 
play in the maintenance of the schools will grow more and more 
insignificant in comparison with other resources. The increase 
of these permanent funds will be slow and uncertain, and 
they must before long reach their maximum ; but the population 
of the State must increase rapidly as the years roll on, and the 
amount distributed will grow less and less per capita ; but if the 
schools are wisely administered and the confidence of the people 
in them maintained, their willingness to meet increasing demands 
will keep pace with the necessities of the case. 

Allusion has already been made to the Ordinances of 1785 and 
1787, the first of which dedicated to common schools one section 
in thirty-six of the public land ; and the second clinched and fixed 
this dedication by the declaration that " schools and the means 
of education shall be forever encouraged." These ordinances 
were the forerunners of all common schools in the then northwest 
regions, and a pledge and promise of their establishment. 

But common schools being the offspring of legislation, it can 



ADDRESS OF PKOF. J. M. B. SILL. 215 

hardly be saitl that they began existence in territorial Michigan 
until the year 1827, four years after the organization of the Leg- 
islative Council, when the first law to provide for them was 
enacted. Under this law, any townsliip could determine by a 
two-third vote not to niaintaiii townshij) schools ; but if the decis- 
ion was favorable to tiie establishment of a schocjl, a schoolmaster 
of good morals w'as to be em[)loyed. A township having lilty 
families was required to have a school for a time equal to six 
months in the year; one having one hundred families, for a longer 
time. Townships of one hundred and fil'ty families were to have 
two teachers, and those of two hundred families were to have 
teachers well instructed in the Latin, French and English lan- 
guages. A penalty consisting of a fine for the benefit of town- 
ships complying with the law was prescribed for townships which 
should fail or neglect to establish schools as directed. The 
schools so established were to be under the charge of five comrais- 
sioners in each township. This law is worthy of notice here, 
because from its enactment the history of common schools in 
Michigan takes its earliest date. It is known that some town- 
ships complied with the law, and that schools were opened and 
maintained under it, l)ut it is difiicult, if not impossible, to ascer- 
tain much concerning the common schools of this period. This 
law also seemed to indicate broader views on the matter of free 
education than some of its successors ; for the schoolmaster was to 
be supported by moneys assessed upon the polls and ratable 
estates in the township, and not by the hardships of a rate-bill. 

In 1829 the law of 1827 was repealed, and another substituted 
for it. The law doubled the number of township school commis- 
sioners and authorized the Governors to appoint a Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, who should take charge of the school 
lands and make an annual report of their condition. 

There is nothing to show that the increase in the number of 
commissioners operated to improve the schools ; and no record of 
the ai)pointment of a superintendent under the law. That the 
law was unsatisfactory is shown by the fact that four years later 
it was repealed, and a new one, differing, however, but slightly, 
enacted in its place. The number of commissioners was reduced. 
The townships were to be divided into districts, the districts each 
electing three directors to look after the buildings, and five direct- 
ors to care for the schools and the teachers. 



216 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

The accessible history of coramou schools from 1827 until the 
organization of the State and the adoption of a Constitution is 
mainly a history of legislation ; but few facts as to the schools 
themselves are recorded. It is possible that there was little to 
record. Concerning this period I can hardly do better than to 
quote the words of Miss Lucy M. Salmon, in her admirable and 
exhaustive paper on Education During the Territorial Period, 
prepared as a thesis when she was a candidate for the degree of 
Master of Arts at the University of Michigan. 

" As the population gradually extended beyond Detroit, schools 
were started ; but of their primitive character at this, as well as a 
much later period, we have abundant evidence in the reminiscences 
given us by the pioneers of the State. The school-house was of 
logs, and there were no complaints of lack of ventilation. Oiled 
paper generally answered the purpose of window-glass. The 
doors were hung on wooden hinges, wiiile one side of the room 
was given up to the fire-place. Slabs furnished with legs were in 
general use, answering the double purpose of seats in-doors, and 
of sleds out-of-doors ; while desks were formed by placing planks 
upon pins driven into the sides of the room. The modern appli- 
ances for teaching were unknown. Even in the aristocratic center 
of Detroit, John Monteith used for his blackboard a shallow box 
of dampened sand. The branches taught were readini,'', writing, 
spelling, and arithmetic, and sometimes, but not often, geography 
and grammar. Reading and spelling were made specialties, and 
the average pupil graduated from arithmetic as soon as he reached 
vulgar fractions. Each child provided whatever text-book was 
convenient, and even in Detroit it was not unusual to find in the 
same class half a dozen different readers and as many arithmetics. 
The inducements held out to enter the profession (of teaching) 
were the privilege of boarding around, and four or five dollars 
per month ; though in some districts the extravagant price of 
fourteen dollars per month was sometimes })aid during the winter 
term. Occasionally pay was taken in farm produce or in labor, 
nearly all the schools being supported by voluntary contributions. 
The teacher, on his part, was to ' keep the school ' six days in the 
week from six to eight hours per day." 

My own recollections of the rural schools go back to 1838, 
when Michigan was already a State in the Union; and lean testify 
that Miss Salmon's account of their general characteristics is not 
at all over-drawn. Indeed, it is possible to make some additions 
to the picture which she has so vividly painted. The teacher was 
expected to take care of the school-house as well as to instruct 
and manage the school. It was the duty of the patrons of the 



ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. 15. SILL. 217 

school to furnish each, his quota of wood, for the fire-place 
or stove. This was usually delivered in sled lengths, and was 
not unfrequently of a quality to condemn it for home use. It 
was the duty of the one who brought it to see that it was cut 
up into suitable pieces for fire. This duty was commonly met so 
far as he was concerned, by ordering his boys at school to do the 
chopping at recess and noon-time. This will undoubtedly seem 
an admirable and altogether sufficient provision by all who know 
the fondness of the average boy for this kind of recreation, but 
it pains me to say that it occasionally failed. Then some pupil 
was sent to the nearest house to borrow an ax, and the master, 
after an oration to the scholars on the pleasures and benefits of 
manual exercise in general, and wood-chopping in ))articular, 
which, so far as my memory serves me, was sadly insufficient in 
bringing out volunteers among the bigger boys, with a sad heart 
antl a far-away look in his eye, repaired to the wood-})ile and made 
provision for his own and our immediate temporal comfort. Do 
not believe that our lack of readiness, to volunteer as wood-chop- 
pers arose altogetlier from laziness or from disinclination to do the 
master a kind act. We had a higher and nobler motive in the 
prospect of so edifying a sight as that of the teacher exploring 
the snow-drifts for the logs, and then for the moment abdicating 
his unapproachable greatness and actually chopping ; and when 
we tired of this, the wild delights of letting pandemonium loose 
in a school-house all unchecked by the eye and the rod of the 
master, was something to remember and to rejoice in. 

My prescribed limits will not allow further detail as to the 
common schools of the period between 1827, the date of the first 
legislative notice of common schools and the admission of Miclii- 
gan as a State into the Union. Miss Salmon, in her paper here- 
tofore referred to and quoted from, says of the years thus included: 
" The work actually done (hiring this period had ap]iarently so 
little connection with all these (legislative) measures that it is 
necessary to consider it by itself As the plans proposed seem to 
have been made with reference to the formation of an ideal system 
of education, and not to the practical needs of the Territory, so, 
on the other hand, the schools, as they actually existed, were in 
general carried on with little reference to any legislative theory 
or any uniform i)lan." No doubt this statement is in all respects 
true, and presents to our minds the strange spectacle of the 



218 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

authorities putting upon paper, wild and visionary schemes hav- 
ing no real relation to the existing state of affairs, while the people 
who knew little and cared less concerning their educational air- 
castles, were slowly and painfully working their way by other 
and very divergent paths to something like a reasonable solution 
of the great problem before them. Though the history of the 
true common schools begins so late as 1827, it is perhaps well to 
stop for a moment to recall certain events having relation to the 
common schools, which had taken place previous to this initial date. 
Prominent among them is the famous legislation which was 
enacted and promulgated by the Governor and Judges of the. 
Territory of Michigan in the year 1817, establishing — on paper 
only — the " Catholepistemiad of Michigania " with its thirteen 
" didaxiim," or professorships, including, among others, " a didaxia 
or professorship of Catholepistemia or universal science," a didaxia 
or professorship of antheropoglossica or literature embracing all 
the epistemum of sciences relative to language, " and a didaxia or 
professorship of physiognostica or natural history." The par- 
ticular sciences included and comprehended in the thirteen 
didaxiim numbered sixty- three. There were to be thirteen 
didactors or professors in charge of the thirteen didaxiim, and 
the "Didactor of Catholepistemia " was to be obeyed and respected 
as president of the Catholepistemiad of Michigania. This tre- 
mendous and almost unspeakable institution was to be supported 
by an addition of fifteen per cent, to existing public taxes and a 
like per cent, of the proceeds of four successive lotteries to be 
arranged for and drawn by the aforesaid Catholepistemiad or 
University. 

At the bottom of all this amazing effort of pedantry, promul- 
gated when the population of the entire Territory was less than 
seven thousand, and uttered in a language which according to 
excellent authority is neither Greek, Latin, nor English, may be 
found certain grains of common sense, and many of the principles 
upon which the educational system of the State was afterwards 
founded. It recognizes the principle that chronologically, higher 
institutions of learning must antedate or at least be contempora- 
neous with schools for the culture of the masses. It concedes the 
truth of the doctrine that education of the people ought to be 
carried on at public cost, and places the University where it be- 
longs, viz.: at the head of the school system. One of the earliest 



ADDRESS OF PROF. .1. M. IJ. SILL. 219 

euactineut.s of its founders was certain additional legislation, 
which, after adopting an appropriate flamboyant seal for the 
Catliolepisteiniad proceeded to provide a course of study in read- 
ing, writing, and arithmetic in the primary schools to be connected 
in some manner as yet unprovided for with the unborn University. 
The tangible outcome of this marvelous piece of legislation was 
the erection, after some delays, of a building twenty-four by fifty 
feet in dimensions and two stories in height in the city of Detroit 
on the west side of Bates near Congress street, which was occupied 
mainly as a prinjary school supported chiefly by tuition charged 
to the parents of attending children, until June, I808, when a 
branch of the University was opened within its walls. With the 
primary schools conducted in this building and under at least 
nominal control of the University trustees, several well known 
names are associated, notably that of Lemuel Shattuck, of Con- 
cord, Mass., who was from August 10, 1818, until October 8, 1821, 
the teacher of an elementary school managed on Laucasterian 
principles. This is a matter of interest mainly because it was, so 
far as 1 know, the only experiment on any considerable scale with 
this kind of schools made in Michigan. This system of instruc- 
tion was introduced at Madras by Dr. Andrew Bell, an English 
clergyman, about the year 17i)0. He was chaj)lain of the English 
garrison stationed at Madras, and had, also, the supervision of a 
school for the education of orphan children of that city. He 
found it diflicult to obtain assistants in this work, and resorted to 
the expedient of conducting the schools by means of the help of 
the pupils themselves. On his return to England a few years 
later, he published a pamphlet explanatory of his scheme. His 
work, however, attracted little or no attention at first, until 
Joseph Lancaster introduced the method into the schools of the 
dissenters early in the nineteenth century. The temporary suc- 
cess of Lancaster's eff()rts put England into a notable excitement. 
The church, alarmed at the success of Lancaster's schools for the 
dissenting poor, established similar schools under Dr. Bell, whose 
merits as the first modern promoter of the monitorial system, 
began to be remembered and extolled. Under Lancaster's vigor- 
ous propaganda schools sprang up everywhere, and for a time a 
new one is said to have been organized every week. The system 
was the educational sensation of the time. Everything was 
claimed for it. Dr. Bell said: "The system has no parallel in 



220 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

scholastic history. In a school, it gives to the master tlie hundred 
eyes of Argus, the hundred hands of Briareus, and the wings of 
Mercury. By multiplying his ministers at pleasure, it gives him 
indefinite powers ; in other words, it enables him to instruct as 
many pupils as his room will contain." 

Lancaster's school was sometimes attended by a thousand 
pupils. It seems sufficiently absurd now in the light of a better 
experience, that so much was expected from a system that con- 
templated nothing better in the way of instruction than the repe- 
tition by monitor pupils to their mates, of what they themselves 
were taught but yesterday; that ignored the fact that teaching is 
the evolution of the powers of the pupil's mind, and that wisdom 
and cultivation on the part of the teacher are necessary elements 
in this process; but it took England by storm, took root in New 
York, where it held its own for many years, and was tried in 
many of the large American cities. Lancasteriau schools were 
established in many States of Continental Europe. In England 
the general effect was to awaken a new and fervid interest in edu- 
cation, and thus the results were, on the whole, beneficial. 

Great claims were made for the efficiency and economy of the 
plan, which was to have one master supervising the training of an 
indefinite number of children. The older and brighter pupils 
were trained and taught directly by the master, and they in turn 
comnmnicated this newly acquired knowledge to the mass of pupils. 
As might be expected, there was little success in the way of main- 
tenance of order and quiet. Some of the promoters of the system 
insisted that the noise and the confusion were an especial advan- 
tage, because pupils trained to attend to their studies in a great 
room where dozens of monitors were instructing hundreds of chil- 
dren and making themselves heard by sheer lung force, were get- 
ting a most useful preparation for the turmoil of actual life. 

In the cit)'^ of Detroit there was at first unbounded enthusiasm 
in behalf of Mr. Shattuck's Lancasteriau enterprise; but after a 
time doubts sprang up as to its value, and the discu.ssion of the 
subject became hot and general. Miss Salmon says that at last 
argument became of little weight, "when brought home to Detroit 
where no fine-spun theory was needed to show that the children 
of the school were noisy, impertinent and undisciplined, while the 
instruction was, of necessity, crude and imperfect. In addition to 
actual results, it was soon seen that the system was in itself radi- 



ADDRESS OF PliOF. ,1. M. B. SILL. 221 

cally defective. The school was kept up by Mr. Shattuck for 
four years, and by his successor about two years, but the method 
was soon abaudQued." 

The first Constitution, adopted in 1835, provided for a Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction to be nominated by the Governor 
and confirmed by the Legislature. Ilis terra of office was to be 
two years. It required the Legislature to provide for a system 
of common schools to be maintained at least three months in 
every year in each school district. It made no requirement that 
the schools shinild be free, thus taking a step backward from the 
position taken by the Legislature in 1827. Hon. Isaac E. Crary 
of Calhoun county, was chairman of the committee which 
reported the article concerning education. 

On July 26, 1836, an act containing the first legislation look- 
ing to the carrying out of the constitutional provisions concern- 
ing education became a law ; and on the same day Rev. John D. 
Pierce was nominated and confirmed as first Superintendent of 
Public Instruction in the new State ; and to him was intrusted, 
by the terms of the act mentioned above, the duty of preparing a 
system for the common schools, and a plan for the University. 

Never was a duty more faithfully and conscientiously per- 
formed. His first report shows that his comprehensive mind had 
fully grasped the difiiculties of the situation and the magnitude 
of the problem to be solved. He saw. that under the provisions 
of the Constitution there was room for noble and beneficent work, 
and he wisely planned for its beginning and its triumphant pro- 
gress ; but also he saw beyond constitutional provisions and 
limits, and from first to last in his long and useful career, he 
never failed to urge upon the jieople that the schools must be free 
in order to accomplish their highest and best work. In this con- 
nection I cannot do better than to quote a few of his own words 
from the document just mentioned : 

" It has been rightly said, too, that common schools are truly 
republican. The great object is to funiisli good instruction in all 
the elementary and common branches of knowledge for all classes 
of community, as good for the poorest boy of the State, as the 
rich man can furnish for his children, with all his wealth. The 
object is universal education, the eilucatiou of every individual of 
all classes. * * * * It is this feature of free schools which 
has nurtured and preserved pure republicanism in our own laud. 



222 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

In the public schools all classes are blended together ; the rich 
mingle with the poor, and are educated iu company. In their 
sportive gambols a common sympathy is awakened ; all kindly 
sensibilities of the heart are excited, and mutual attachments are 
formed which cannot fail to exert a soothing and happy influence 
through life. * * * * Nothing can be imagined more 
admirably adapted in all its bearings, to prostrate all distinctions 
arising from mere circumstances of birth and fortune. * * * 

*' Let free schools be established and maintained in perpetuity, 
and there can be no such thing as a permanent aristocracy in our 
land ; for the monopoly of wealth is powerless where mind is 
allowed freely to come in contact with mind. It is by erecting a 
barrier between the rich and the poor, which can be done only by 
allowing a monopoly to the rich — a monopoly of learning as well 
as of wealth — that such an aristocracy can be established. But 
the operation of the free school system has a powerful tendency 
to prevent the erection of the barrier." 

In the mind of this far-seeing educator, and I may truly say 
statesman, universal education ought to be the objective point of 
all educational endeavor. To him universities had their justifi- 
cation not only in their direct and immediate advantages, but, 
also, and more emphatically, because elementary education must 
wither and finally perish without them. He foresaw the need of 
a normal school and foreshadowed it in his appeal for prospective 
provision that every teacher of the public schools shall have been 
through a regular course of professional training. 

He emphasized the doctrine, that not only has every individual 
a natural right to at least an elementary education, but that where 
there is on the part of the State a binding obligation to suffer 
none to grow up in ignorance, and to this end he suggests compul- 
sory education and the requirement upon all. who have the charge 
of children to send them to school at least for a time equal to the 
annual three months named in the Constitution, and he puts this 
suggestion upon the high ground of the welfare of the individual 
and the security of the State. 

In the same report he urges the immediate establishment of 
district libraries, and suggests means for their support. He pre- 
pared a schedule of school officers, consisting of township inspect- 
ors, the Township Clerk being ex-officio clerk of the township 
board, and a moderator, director and assessor in each district. 



ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 223 

This plan of organization has persisted in its main features until 
the present time, and is in force to-day. 

At this early date it could hardly be expected that any one 
would foresee the ultimate expansion of the common schools into 
institutions preparing students for the University; and so Super- 
intendent Pierce made great efforts for the establishing of branches 
of the University in order that the way might be open for all to 
advance from the common schools to the doors of the system's 
crowning institution. This provision for preparatory instruction 
did not meet the expectations of its friends ; and at an early date 
the branches yielded their place to the Union and graded schools; 
but, true to his instincts in favor of primary schools and loyal 
always to general education, Mr. Pierce's plan provided for the 
training of common school teachers in each of the branches to be 
established. Mr. Pierce's term of service as Superintendent of 
Public Instruction covered a period of five years, until April, 
1841, He was the true pioneer in Michigan's educational field. 
When he was called to the great work of organizing a school 
system for the State, there were few precedents for his guidance. 
New problems were to be solved, and great questions before 
unasked and unanswered were to be dealt with. 

Deeply impressed with the responsibility of the position assigned 
to him, he laid hold of the work vigorously and courageously, and 
brought to its accomplishment all the force of his far-seeing wisdom 
and indomitiible industry, and all the energy of enthusiasm born 
of his love for his fellow-men and iiis confidence in the value of 
universal education. 

The Legislature placed on his ample and sufficient shoulders 
the greatest burden of the hour, and confident in his wisdom and 
integrity followed, almost without deviation, the plan which he 
marked out. 

His public services in behalf of the schools were by no means 
confined to the period during which he held the office of Superin- 
tendent. 

Fortunately for the cause of education in Michigan, he was 
elected to the State Legislature in 1847, where confidence in his 
knowledge and good judgment made him a power in all matters 
pertaining to the schools, and enabled him to secure the passage 
of several measures of importance in their administration. Again 
and still more fortunately, he was called to take a conspicuous part 



224: Michigan's semi-centennial. 

in the deliberations of the convention which framed the Constitu- 
tion of 1850. His handiwork is to be been in many of the pro- 
visions relating to the education of the people by means of the 
common schools, the university and the libraries. 

He died in April, 1882, at the advanced age of 85 years. He 
was active in all good works to the last of his life, and his pro- 
found and intelligent interest in behalf of public education never 
faltered nor grew faint. Many of us here present knew him and 
honored him. We recall, at this moment, his massive, sharply- 
chiseled face, his kindly eye, his white locks, his towering form 
and his venerable presence. He stands among Michigan's noblest 
benefactors. Ought not our children and our children's children 
to know him, and remember him ? Has this Commonwealth yet 
produced a man whose portrait would more worthily grace the 
halls of this Capitol than his ? 

At the close of Mr. Pierce's term of office, the organization of 
the schools had progressed as follows : From fifty-five districts 
in 1836, to 2,215 in 1841, and the number of children attending 
the schools from 2,377 in 1836, to 51,254 in 1841. In his last 
report he again gives emphatic expression to a doctrine which 
had been, throughout his career, the chief guide of his action : 
"The property of a State ought to be held liable for the educa- 
tion of all within its borders, and on this principle every school 
system should be based." 

Mr. Pierce's successor, Franklin Sawyer, dr., was appointed on 
the 8th day of April, 18'41, and the term of his service ended in 
May, 1843. He was a graduate of Harvard University, and came 
to Detroit about the year 1830, where he studied law and was 
admitted to the bar. After a few years of practice at the bar, 
during which he was, for a time, a partner of Jacob M. Howard, 
he turned his attention to journalism, in which he made a repu- 
tation as a brilliant and forcible writer. He brought to the work 
of superintendence of the schools, excellent scholarship, great 
industry and earnestness, and habits of systematic work. He 
made a careful and laborious inquiry into the working of the 
school system, and found it excellent in its main features, but dis- 
covered to the Legislature and the people great imperfections in 
its details, especially in the working of the amendments made to 
the law of 1840. lie found the most striking defect in the inade- 
quate provision made by means of the township taxes for the sup- 



ADDRESS OF PKOF. J. M. B. STLI,. 225 

port of schools. During his administration an attempt was made to 
remedy this serious defect ; but the new amendatory act was itself 
defective, providing only that the electors of any township be 
authorized to raise any sum of money for the support of schools, 
provided that such sum should not exceed one dollar for each per- 
son within the limits of the school age, in the township; but mak- 
ing no adequate provision for securing such action by the electors ; 
and therefore the financial affairs of the schools were not at all 
improved by its enactment. 

In his reports he was the steadfast and vigorous supporter of the 
free school doctrine so ably promulgated by his eminent pre- 
decessor. " He urged the supremacy of the common schools 
over all others, as upon them depend the very existence of higher 
seminaries of learning." He says, " Education is a common right, 
the exclusive property of no man, of no set of men." 

In his first report to the Legislature he made a strong presen- 
tation of the absolute necessity of free education, based upon taxa- 
tion of the property of the State. In the second year of Supt. 
Sawyer's incumbency, the State Land Office was established and 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction was relieved of the 
onerous duties pertaining to the custody and accountsof the school 
lands. This was a most desirable and salutary change, freeing 
the executive school officer from a burden which ought never to 
have been imposed upon him. Daring the same year, several 
important changes in the school laws were made. In accordance 
with a suggestion made in his second report, the new law provided 
for the raising of the township mill tax, for the support of schools in 
the various districts. This was the most important legislation, 
and it marks a conspicuous era in the school history of Michigan. 
The law did not provide for the immediate levying of the whole 
amount of one mill on the dollar, but "it was enacted that the 
supervisor in each township should assess, for the support of 
schools, for the year 184o, twenty-five dollars; for 1844 one-half 
mill on each dollar of the total valuation of the taxable property of 
the township ; for 1845 and thereafter, the whole amount of one 
mill on the dollar. 

Mr. Sawyer's draft of the revision of the school laws provided 

that the schools should be supported by the income of the school 

fund, the mill tax, and such otlier sum as should be voted in the 

district meetings. In other words, that the schools should be free 

15 



226 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

to all comers. The Legislature, however, did not agree to this 
view ; and attempted to remedy the difficulty in raising money 
for the payment of teachers by means of a rate-bill. The dis- 
astrous effects of this policy have been alluded to heretofore in 
this paper ; but with all its disadvantages and attendant discour- 
agements, it held its paralyzing sway in the schools for more than 
a quarter of a century, and not until the year 1869 were they 
relieved of this wearying burden. 

Dr. Oliver C. Comstock succeeded Mr. Sawyer as Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction on May 8, 1844. The school laws had 
been recently revised and amended, and while much that was 
unsatisfactory remained in them, the Legislature, fearful of the 
danger of changes too frequent and too radical, prepared "to sub- 
mit to temporary difficulties rather than to legislate anew upon a 
subject in which a permanent and settled policy is as much to be 
consulted as correctness of principle and propriety of detail." It 
therefore happened that the administration of Dr. Comstock was 
an uneventful one, no extensive or radical changes being made 
during its existence. A biographical sketch given in the report 
of the Superintendent in the year 1880, accords to him large abil- 
ities and faithful and efficient service. 

Certainly his reports bear the impress of careful and correct 
thought and diligent labor, and are filled with practical, wise, and 
faithful suggestions. 

In April, 1845, Ira Mayhew, of Monroe, was appointed by the 
Governor and confirmed by the Legislature to succeed Mr. Sawyer 
in the superintendeucy. He served two constitutional terms, 
retiring from the office in 1849, and afterwards recalled to it by 
election at the hands of the people, under the Constitution of 1850, 
for another period of two terms. 

Tiie i)eriod of Mr. Mayhew's first superintendeucy was one of 
unprecedented activity in educational affairs. He early succeeded 
in correcting, at least to a considerable degree, the misdirection 
of moneys arising from fines, penalties and forfeitures, and in 
applying them to the purposes to which constitutional provision 
and legislative enactment had dedicated them. 

He reinforced Superintendent Sawyer's urgent appeal for a 
better and more efficient supervision of the schools, which was 
voiced and repeated by his successors until it was met, in 1867, by 
the passage of a law establishing county superintendence. 



ADDRKSS OF PKOF. .1. M. I!. SILL. 227 

He was the first ti) engage actively in tlie formation of teach- 
ers' associations, founding the first one in Lenawee county ; and by 
persistent endeavor lie succeeded in establishing teachers' insti- 
tutes, and labored untiringly in their behalf, not only in securing 
for them a permanent place in the educational system of the 
State, but also in the actual work of conducting instruction in 
them. 

They came into favor at once, and from that day to this, they 
have been acknowledged as one of the foremost agencies in arous- 
ing among teachers a genuine professional spirit, and in giving 
them the means of a better prei)aration for their work. He made 
strong efforts in behalf of the circulation of educational journals, 
and induced great numbers of the teachers to subscribe for them. 
Under his administration, and by his advice and encouragement, 
the Union Schools, the precursors of the present High Schools, 
took their rise. He was quick to see in them the more useful and 
valuable successors to branches of the University — which were 
moribund in 1848, and practically dead before the expiration of 
.Mr. Mayhew's second teruL He saw in them the true and endur- 
ing link between the })rimary schools and the University. 

He began the agitation for a Normal School and continued it with 
such vigor that the year 1849 brought the fruition of his ho()es 
and the result of his labors in legislation providing for the es- 
tablishment of a State Institution for the training and instruction 
of teachers. 

He was a zealous educational missionary in a new and needy 
field. He visited the remotest parts of the State, lecturing, en- 
couraging and helping. 

The Legislature requested him to prepare and publish a volume 
containing the views set forth in his course of lectures. In answer 
to this request he published a volume called " Means and Ends of 
Universal Education," which did excellent service in informing 
the people and arousing their interest in the matter of which it 
treated. 

During Mr. Mayhew's administration previous to the adoption 
of the new Constitution in 1850, the number of organized dis- 
tricts increased to 3,075 and the number of children attending 
the public schools to 102,871. The corresponding figures for 1845, 
when he began his work, were 2,683 and 75,770. On March 25, 
1849, he was succeeded in the superintendency by Erancis W. 



228 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Shearman, of Marshall, thus closing the first period of his official 
career with credit to the State, honor to himself and lasting ad- 
vantage to education in Michigan. 

Mr. Shearman, appointed at the date mentioned above, was 
elected under the new Constitution in 1850, and re-elected in 1852, 
served the State as Superintendent of Public Instruction for 
nearly six years, until January 1, 1855. 

In 1850 the revised Constitution was adopted and went into 
eflfect. A comparison of this instrument with the Constitution of 
1835, shows several important changes affecting the common 
schools. Among these the following are prominent: 

The Superintendent of Public Instruction was to be elected bi- 
ennially by the people. 

The first Constitution required the Legislature to provide for a 
system of common schools, but did not require the maintenance 
of free common schools. The revised instrument made it obli- 
gatory upon the Legislature to provide for and establish, within 
five years, a system of primary schools to be open, in every school 
district, at least three months in each year, without charge for 
tuition. In other words, it required the Legislature, within the 
time named, to establish a system of free common schools. 

It also provides that all specific taxes with certain exceptions, 
after extinction of the public debt, other than the amount due to 
the educational funds to be added to and become a part of the 
Primary School Interest fund. 

During Mr. Shearman's first elective term, in 1851, there was 
legislation that seemed, at the time, to be of great prospective 
importance. The mill tax was changed to a tax of two mills on 
the dollar, thus doubling one of the chief sources of revenue to 
the schools ; but two years later this tax was changed back again 
to the original amount, as fixed for the year 1845. In October, 
1852, during Mr. Shearman's superintendency, the Normal school 
was dedicated by appropriate ceremonies, and in the following 
spring it was opened for the reception of students and began reg- 
ular work. In the same year, 1852, the State Teachers' Associa- 
tion was organized at the Normal School ; A. T. Welch, principal 
of that institution being its first president. Mr. Shearman was 
graduated from Hamilton college in the nineteenth year of his 
age. He was an elegant and accomplished scholar ; a most amia- 
ble and agreeable gentleman, and a writer of great force and abil- 



ADDRESS OP- PKOF. .1. M. B. SILL. 229 

ity. His annual report for 1852, included a full, historical 
account of education in Michigan, from the earliest territorial 
times to the date at which it was written. It is a comprehensive 
and valuable work which must still be consulted by every one 
who makes any serious inquiry into the educational history of 
Michigan. 

^Ir. Shearman's successor was Ira Mayhew, of whom mention 
has already been made in this paper. Called thus to service a sec- 
ond time, he entered upon his work with the industry and steady 
vigt)r that characterized his previous administration. He was 
re-elected in 1857, and continued in the service of the State until 
the end of the official term, January 1, 1859. 

In his report for the year 1855, he urged the compliance of the 
Legislature with the requirements of the Constitution concerning 
free schools. The time set for their establishment was already 
past, and as yet nothing effective had been done towards meeting 
those requirements. If he had foreseen that nearly a decade and 
a half were yet to elapse before the Legislature would yield full 
obedience to the Constitutional mandate, he would have been dis- 
couraged indeed. He renewed his appeal of ten years before for 
a better and more efficient system of supervision, but in this also 
he was many years in advance of the views of the law-makers. 
Having thus made brief mention of the leading events in the 
earlier history of our common schools, and of some of the more 
noteworthy pioneers in Michigan's educational field, I must hasten 
to close this sketch. 

Next in order comes the superintendency of Dr. John M. 
Gregory. As he stands on the dividing line between the pioneers 
and their worthy successors, perhaps it may not be thought invidi- 
ous if the historian pauses to give a brief expression to the general 
feeling of kind regard and high respect which the people of this 
State entertain for him. He was a man who gave to his work in 
the schools all the resources of a large and sympathetic heart, and 
all the power of a strong, keen and magnificently disciplined mind. 
He was an indomitable and untiring worker, and while he made 
no startling innovations, he stood upon the strong foundations 
laid by his predecessors, and l)uilt with tb.e skill of a master arti- 
ficer. 

His enthusiasm and devotion were contagious and inspiring, 
and his four years of service, ending January 1, 1865, were full of 



230 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

profit to the State. Following Mr. Gregory comes Oramel Hos- 
ford, of Olivet, to whom the people gave the extraordinary and 
well-deserved compliment of three consecutive re-elections, and a 
continuous terra of eight years. During his incumbency the Legis- 
lature at last listened to tlie many times repeated advice of a long 
line of Superintendents, and enacted a law providing for a system 
of county supervision. 

For eight years this system was maintained. It is the testi- 
mony of those who should know best, that this plan was in all 
respects a decided improvement over the absence of supervision 
which had previously been the policy of the State. 

Of its downfall in 1875, the historical sketch in the report of 
the Superintendent of Schools, for 1880, says: "Although the 
scheme was in many respects faulty, yet the efforts and influence 
of the superintendents were conducive to much good, and a wide 
contrast was soon manifest between the schools taught under its 
operations and those of former years, but its defects were seized 
upon by those who had, from the beginning, opposed it, and every 
opportunity was taken to belittle and cripple it. As a conse- 
quence, a weight of popular opposition was brought against it, to 
which the Legislature, without any attempt to modify its defects, 
yielded, and in 1875 repealed all its provisions and inaugurated 
in its stead a system of township superintendency of schools." 
Six years sufficed to show the unwisdom of the change mentioned 
above. The system of township supervision was found to be, if 
possible, less valuable than the absence of all supervision which 
prevailed before the advent of county superintendents. In 1881 
the Legislature returned to a somewhat modified county system 
which promises good results. Three county examiners have in 
charge the whole matter of the examination of teachers, while the 
chairmen of the township boards are cliarged with the duty of the 
immediate supervision of the schools, each in his own township. 

Next in order after Mr. Hosford came Daniel B. Briggs, who 
served four years, his second terra ending January 1, 1877. Mr. 
Briggs is the last Superintendent who has fully filled out the term 
for which he was elected ; his successors, Messrs. Horace S. Tar- 
bell, Cornelius A. Gower and Herschel R. Gass, all having resigned 
the office before the ex[)iration of their several terms; and the 
present Superintendent, Theodore Nelson, of St. Louis, Michigan, 
having not yet completed the terra for which he was elected. 



ADDRESS OF PKOF. J. M. IS. SILL. 231 

It reiuaius to give a brief synopsis of the present condition of 
the common schools, as compared with their status fifty years 
ago. The fact is that the records of the schools in the first years 
of Michigan's existence as a State make it impossible to obtain 
the data for such comparison as to many interesting facts. One 
is, therefore, obliged in many instances to make the comparison 
between the present time and a date more recent than lSo(). 

The latest published report of the department of instruction 
brings the Educational Statistics down to Septeini)er, 1885. The 
exact progress which tiie schools have made real in excellence, is, 
of course, difiiicult of measurement. We cannot lay the measur- 
ing line to the products of education as we can to the output of a 
mine, or to the results of half a century of manufacture. I'o one 
who has seen them in the early times and who knows them now, 
their progress in all that makes schools worth having, and se- 
cures for them the respect and confidence of communities, is pro- 
nounced and unmistakable. 

But their material progress is morq easily measured and exhib- 
ited. The last half century has seen the attendance upon them 
increase from two or three thousand, as reported, to more than 
400,000; the annual resources from 82o,171 to -^5,703,412; the 
number of organized districts from 55 to 6,932; and since 1845 
the number of teachers employed has increased from 3,053 to 
15,358. 

It must be admitted, however, that these figures canncjt, and do 
not, have any very exact value in measuring real progress; but 
they do show, that in spite of all complaints and criticisms, the 
people care for their common schools; and that they are to-day, 
after an experience of fifty years, more ready than ever before to 
give them abundantly whatever their needs require. 

THE STATK NORMAL SCnoOL. 

Having already nearly exhausted the space allotted to me for 
these sketches I shall limit myself to a brief statement of the con- 
spicuous points in the history of this institution. The preceding 
sketch has already called attention to the urgency with which the 
early Superintendents of Public Instruction had pressed upon the 
attention of the Legislature the imperative need of suitable means 
for preparing teachers for their work. 



232 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

As early as 1836, Superiutendent Pierce made au able presen- 
tation of the subject. In his first report he gave a review of the 
Prussian system of Normal Schools, and strongly recommended 
the adoption of a similar plan for the benefit of education in 
Michigan ; and in his subsequent reports he kept this matter, 
which he deemed of prime importance, before the people of the 
State. He was careful to provide for the beginnings of normal 
instruction in the plan for the organization of branches of the Uni- 
versity, which he submitted to the Legislature. His successor. 
Superintendent Sawyer, was mindful of the same pressing need, 
and called the attention of the Legislature to the importance of 
establishing a Normal school. 

In 1843, Superintendent Comstock again urged the necessity 
for such a step, and dwelt upon the benefits and advantages that 
it would secure to the Schools. 

Superintendent Mayhew took the subject in hand with charac- 
teristic persistence and earnestness, and at last succeeded in secur- 
ing a favorable hearing by the Legislature. In the year 1849, an 
act was passed providing for carrying out the plan which Mr. 
Mayhew and his predecessors had so perseveringly advocated. The 
law establishing the State Normal School was enacted and approved 
in March of that year. This new educational enterprise was 
placed in charge of a State Board of Education, consisting of three 
persons appointed by the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, and 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the last being secretary 
of said Board. The Legislature of 1850 added the State Treas- 
urer, who was to be the treasurer of the Board. 

During the same year, the new Constitution was adopted. 
This provided for a Board of four persons, three of whom are 
elected by the people and hold office for six years, one being 
chosen at each biennial election. The fourth is the Superinten- 
dent of Public Instruction, who is ex-officio a member and the 
Secretary of the Board. The first election under this provision 
of the Constitution was held in the fall of 1852 ; and the State 
Board of Education thus constituted began their term of office in 
January, 1853. 

Under the law of 1849, ten sections of Salt Spring lands were 
appropriated for the pur[)0se of defraying the expenses of erect- 
ing a building and for the purchase of necessary apparatus, books, 
cte. Another fund, called the Normal School Endowment fund, 



ADDRESS OF I'KOF. J. M. B. SILL. 233 

was also established by a grant of" fifteeu sections of Salt Spring 
lands; and the Board of Education was directed to locate the 
lands comprising both grants. 

In 1850 the two grants were consolidated into one, constituting 
a Normal School Endowment fund; and from this endowment 
fund a sum not exceeding S 10,000 was reserved for the erection 
of buildings; about $8,000 of this fund was actually used for this 
purpose. The remainder of the proceeds of the sale of the lands 
granted for normal school purposes is now held by the State, and 
the interest at six per cent, goes annually to the maintenance of 
the Normal School. 

The present condition of this fund is as follows: 

In the hands of the State $(31,784.81 

Due from purchasers of lands 7,;}41.23 



$69,126.04 

The fund has attained its maximum. The last of the Normal 
School lands were sold in 1868, and ,since that time sales have 
been made only of lands forfeited for the non-payment of interest. 
Originally the lands comprised 16,000 acres; and the amount 
realized is an average of about $4.80 per acre. 

The members of the first Board of Education were Samuel 
Barstow, Randolph Manning and the Rev. Samuel Newberry, 
with the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Lieutenant 
Governor. This Board proceeded promptly to locate the Endow- 
ment Fund lands and select a place for the Normal School. 

Proposals were received from Jackson, Niles, Gull Prairie, 
Marshall, and Ypsilanti, each offering to donate lands and sums 
of money to secure the location of the school. The most favor- 
able proposition came from Ypsilanli. The ofler included the fol- 
lowing items : An eligible lot for the proposed site, a subscription 
of $13,500, the use of temporary buildings, and the payment of 
the salary of the teachers of the model school for five years. 
Accepting this offer, the board proceeded at once to enlarge the 
grounds by the purchase of an additional tract of four acres, and 
to erect a brick building fifty-five by one hundred feet in dimen- 
sions, and three stories in height, at a cost of §15,200. This was 
finished and ready for use in the autumn of 1852. 

The remaining history of the buildings may properly be given 
at this point. In October, 1859, the original t)iiilding was partly 



234 xMichigan's semi-centennial. 

destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt with |;8,000 realized from iusur- 
ance, and was again in readiness for the reception of students in 
September, 1860. Though the loss of the building was thus made 
good, the school suffered from the destruction of its library, fur- 
niture and apparatus to the extent of nearly $6,000. 

An additional building was finished in 1869. An interesting 
account of its erection is given in the Historical Sketches pub- 
lished in connection with the report of the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction for 1880, as follows: 

" In 1864, the Board of Education made an arrangement with 
the executive committee of the State Agricultural Society to erect 
a building seventy by forty feet, and two stories above the base- 
ment, to be used by the school and to contain the Museum of the 
Agricultural Society. The terms were that the society should 
contribute two thousand dollars, the citizens of Ypsilauti fifteen 
hundred dollars, and the Board of Education the balance, for the 
erection of the building. During the year 1865 the building was 
inclosed, the work having been greatly retarded by the high price 
of materials and labor ; and in September, 1868, the most that 
could be said was, ' it has been inclosed, and rooms finished in the 
basement for the janitor.' In the meantime the committee of the 
Agricultural Society had become discouraged, and in 1868, after 
an expenditure of three thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, 
assigned their interest in the property to the Board of Education. 
The Legislature in 1869 appropriated |i7,500 for the completion 
of the building, which was effected the same year. In 1871, the 
Legislature very justly voted an additional appropriation of 
83,250 to reimburse the Agricultural Society for the money it had 
expended. This building is now mainly occupied by the Conserv- 
atory of Music connected with the Normal School." 

In 1878 greatly needed additions were made to the main build- 
ing. A new front eighty-five by eighty-six feet, three stories high 
above the basement, was erected, the cost being about $43,350, of 
which the citizens of Ypsilanti contributed $2,300. 

The growth of the school making still more room necessary to 
its suitable accommodation, a wing, by one hundred feet 

and two stories in height, was added to the w'est side of the origi- 
nal building in 1882. The entire cost to the State, of the build- 
ings, furniture, fixtures and repairs from the date of the establish- 
ment of the scliool, thirty-three years, has been le.ss than $84,000. 

The recent extraordinary increase in the number of pupils in 
attendance makes necessary still further additions to the school 



ADDKKSS OF PUOF. J. M. IJ. SILL. 235 

buildings, and the Board of Education, at tlie last session of the 
Legislature, made an earnest but ineffectual appeal for an appro- 
priation for this {)urpose 

There is time for only the briefest possible outline of the annals 
of the Normal School, the succession of its administrations, etc. 

The building was detlicated with approj)riat(! ceremonies on 
October 5th, 1852. Hon. John D. Pierce, the honored father of 
education in Michigan, who saw in the event the fruition of his 
most earnest efforts, delivered the main address of the occasion. 
D. Bethune Diiffield, then, as now, t\\v firm friend and energetic 
promoter of popular education, contributed a brief poem which is 
presented herewith: 

" Hail, Spirit of immortal trulli. 
Bright emauation from on high. 
Now o'er our Nation's glowing youth 
Extend thy wings of purity — 
To thy great purpose now we raise 
Tkese noble walls, this song of praise. 

Here we liavo built a holy shrine 
AVhcre thy true worshippers may kneel 
And seek to know the art divine 
Of teaching what thy laws reveal ; 
Pour then thy tlood of golden light 
And cheer the groping student's sight. 

May thy disciples hence depart 
Well girded for the toilsome life 
And ever as they faint ai heart 
Sustain them for the ceaseless strife; 
Give them to feel that by thy power 
Bright hopes oft deck tlie darkest hour. 

Teach them our rising youth to lead 

In wisdom's ways, whose paths are peace; 

And grant Thou as the years succeed, 

Our numbers here maj' still increase; 

Till from those heights bright streams shall flow 

To cheer the drooping vales below. 

Great God, preserve this sacred fane, 
And let thy smile upon it rest. 
For Art and Science build in vain. 
Unless the work the Lord hath blessed. 
Take it within thine own embrace. 
And l)less it to our land and race." 



236 Michigan's semi-oentennia.l. 

Hon. Isaac E. Crary, of the Board of Education, in a few well 
chosen and eloquent words, dedicated the school to its high pur- 
poses. Hon. Chauncy Joslin, in a brief but impressive address, 
installed Prof. A. S. Welch as the first principal of the school, 
and delivered to him the keys of the building, as a symbol of his 
office. 

A State Teachers' Institute, under the direction of the principal 
of the school, was hehl during the four weeks next succeeding the 
dedication. During this Institute the Michigan State Teachers' 
Association, which has ever since been an educational power in 
the State, was organized, the new principal of the Normal School 
being its first president. 

The first actual session of the Normal School was opened in 
March, 1853. The actual work of the school, therefore, covers a 
period of a little more than thirty-three years, one-third of a 
century. Its affairs have been administered by several principals, 
the order and length of whose service is shown in the following 
table : 

Name of Principal. Period Covered. llrvfcef 

A. S. Welch 1853-1865 13 years. 

D. P. Mayhew 1865-1870 5 " 

C. Fitzroy Bellows 1871 1 " 

(Acting Principal.) 

Joseph Estabrook 1871-1880 9 " 

Malcolm McVicar 1880 1 " 

D.Putnam 1881-1883 2 •' 

(Acting Principal.) 

Edwin Willits 1883-1885 2 " 

D.Putnam 1885-188G 1 " 

(Acting Principal.) 

The purpose of the Normal School was defined in the law es- 
tablishing it, as follows: " Be it enacted by the Senate and House 
of Representatives of the State of Michigan, that a State Normal 
School be established, the exclusive purpose of which shall be the 
instruction of pei-sons, both male and female, in the art of teach- 
ing, and in all the various branches that pertain to a good com- 
mon school education ; also to give instruction in the mechanic 
arts, and in the arts of husbandry and agricultural chemistry, in 
the fundamental laws of the United States, and in what regards 
the rights and duties of citizens." 

To this day there has been, so far as the law is concerned, no 
change in the original purpose of the school, but the course of 



ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 237 

eveuts has tended' to the narrowing of its original aims, to the 
one purpose of training teachers for their work in the schools of 
the State. For a time, during the earlier years of the institution, 
lectures upon agricultural chemistry and the arts of husbandry 
were regularly given; but the enactment in 1855 of a law 
directing the establishment of un Agricultural College, removed 
the necessity for further etibrts in this direction. Indeed, from 
the first, it seems to have been generally understood that the real 
work of the Normal School was the training of teachers. Super- 
intendent Gregory, in the report for 1859, speaks as follows: 
"The State Normal School was established by the Legislature in 
1849 ; and its main design is to be a school for teachers, where 
they may receive instruction peculiarly adapted to their pro- 
fession ; though tiie law contains some rhetorical flourishes about 
giving instruction in tlie mechanic arts, and in the arts of hus- 
bandry, and agricultural chemistry, in the fundamental laws 
of the United States, and in what regards the rights and duties 
of citizens. The Normal School is -to the primary schools what 
theological seminaries are to the churches. It is simply the 
teachers' college, and a school for professional training." 

It will be seen by reference to the law quoted above, that 
it requires that instruction be given " in all the various branches 
of study that pertain to a good common school education." Of 
course this means academic instruction, and foreshadows the 
policy of the school to be to equip future teachers with a suitable 
knowledge of the branches to be taught by them, as well as to 
train them in the science and art of teaching. In other words, 
il was not designed to make the Normal School strictly and abso- 
lutely professional. A purely professional normal school would 
require of its pupils full knowledge, gained elsewhere, of all the 
subjects of instruction, and would undertake only to train them 
in the philosophy of education, school government, methods of 
instruction, etc To such a school, graduates of colleges and 
others wlio h;ul already acquired all needful knowledge in mathe- 
matics, science and literature, would come for training and 
instruction in the art of teaching. 

In the work of giving instruction in the several branches of 
study, the Michigan Normal School occupies the educational 
field in common with other literary and scientific institutions. It 
is peculiar and professional only when it undertakes to train its 
pupils in the " Science and Art of Teaching." 



238 Michigan's semicentennial. 

About the year 1872, the question whether it was not time for 
the Normal School to abandon academic work and become a 
strictly professional institution, began to be agitated and warm- 
ly discussed. This discussion, carried on in the State Teachers' 
Association and elsewhere, reached its culminating point in the 
year 1878. It was argued with some warmth, that there was no 
longer any necessity that the school should engage its energies in 
the direction of academic instruction. It was said that the High 
School and Colleges were equipped for this work, and were will- 
ing and abundantly able to do it. It was thought that the time 
was ripe for a radical change which would free the Normal School 
corps from everything except the appropriate work of a typical 
professional school. It was also thought that Michigan ought, for 
her own sake, to make this advance, and that great credit would 
justly fall to her if she should take the lead in so important a mat- 
ter, and be the first to maintain a true American Norman School 
devoted exclusively to professional effort. 

In the spring of 1878, the faculty of the school, convinced of 
the value and feasibility of these suggestions, requested the IJoard 
of Education to prepare a course of study, in accordance with 
them. 

The following quotation from the catalogue of 1877-8 gives a 
history of the adoption of the new plan of work. 

"There is in process of erection at Ypsilanti, a new building 
for the State Normal School, which has grown to need more 
extended and fitting accommodations. 

" It has been thought fit to signalize the occupancy of these new 
quarters in September next, by making such changes in the econ- 
omy of the school and its scheme and methods of work as shall 
bring it fully up to the most progressive and well defined views 
now held of the true sphere of Normal Schools." 

The faculty of the school recjuested the State Board of Educa- 
tion to prepare a course of study to be entered upon at the com- 
mencement of the new school year. Accordingly the State Board 
of Education, at its meeting on the 8th of March last, appointed 
as a committee for this work its president and secretary. 

This committee entered upon its labors by requesting each 
member of the Normal faculty to prepare in extetiso, in writing, 
for the use of the committee, his views on the proper work of the 
Normal School. 



ADDRESS OF I'KOK. .1. M. H. .-ILL. 'J/V.t 

An extended correspondence was entered upon with the leading 
educators of this State and many in other States, and very elabo- 
rate and able reports were presented by several members of the 
Normal faculty, and the opinions of all secured. 

At a meeting of the State Board of Education on the I'ith of 
April the committee above nientioiied presented the following 
report, which embodies the judgment of the committee, and is 
consonant with the views of a very large majority of those whose 
opinions were obtained : 

" The committee ap])ointed to examine and report upon com- 
munications from the faculty of the Normal School, in relation to 
a change in the course of study, would respectfully report that 
they have been exceedingly gratified by the full and able papers 
presented; and while there are differences in the details of the 
courses of study recommended, they find substantial unity of views 
in the general plan. It is agreed by all that the Normal School 
should, if possible, be brought more into sympathy with the super- 
intendents and principals of the high schools of the State, and 
assume a more purely professional- character. To accomplish 
these objects, two plans are suggested — one being to elevate the 
standard of academic attainment required for admission, and to 
remodel the course of study so as to combine academical and pro- 
fessional study during the entire course ; the other to separate the 
academical entirely from the professional, all academic preparation 
to be made prior to admission to the Normal School. 

The committee deem it wise to combine the two plans to a cer- 
tain extent, and by so doing secure a substantial agreement 
between the members of the entire faculty. 

They recommend : 

1st. Enlarging the School of Observation and Practice, so as to 
constitute a graded school, representing all the (lej)artments of our 
best gradeil schools, and that students applying for admission to 
the Normal Scho(d, deficient in academic preparation, be aHowed 
to make such preparation in the School of Ob.servation ami 
Practice. 

2d. This School of Observation and Practice to be under the 
supervision of the principal of that school, with two skilled assist- 
ants, but the teaching to be done by Normal students, under the 
direction and inspection of the respective professors of the 
Normal. 

3d. To establish in the Normal School proper three courses of 
study, of one year eacli, — the C'onnnon School, Higlier English, 
and Language, fitting teachers respectively for the lower and 
higher grades in our common and graded schools. 

4th. Aside from general reviews in connection with professional 



240 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

instruction, the Normal School proper to be confined to pro- 
fessional instruction. 

5th. The requirements for admission to the Normal School 
proper should be carefully and fully stated in the prescribed 
courses of study, and students admitted on certificates from our high 
schools should still be required to pass examination in the ele- 
mentary branches. 

6th. Your committee recommend that in the prescribed course 
of study, both for the School of Observation and Practice, and of 
the Normal School proper, more attention be given to Drawing 
and English History and Literature. 

Your committee do not think there will be any difficulty in 
combining and modifying the several schemes, or courses of 
study, so as to remodel them on the plan proposed, prescribing 
just what should be pursued in the School of Observation and 
Practice, and what shall be pursued in the Normal School proper. 

The School of Observation and Practice is an absolutely essen- 
tial part of the Normal School, without which, and without full 
and careful teaching in which by the pupils of the Normal 
School, under their respective professors, we are satisfied the Nor- 
mal School would fail to send out teachers fully fitted for the 
work of their profession. 

Your committee would recommend the reference of the several 
schemes of study to a committee, to be modified and combined and 
perfected, so as to carry out the general purposes and views above 
set forth. 

W. J. Baxter, 

H. S. Tarbell, 

Committee." 

The report of the committee was adopted without dissent, and 
the following committee appointed in accordance with the recom- 
mendation of the report. 

Committee on Courses of Study for the Normal School — Super- 
intendent J. M B. Sill, of Detroit; Prof Daniel Putnam, of Ypsi- 
lanti ; Horace S. Tarbell, of Lansing. 

This committee, after careful consideration, has prepared the 
following course of study and requirements for admission to the 
several departments of the Normal School : 

COMMON SCHOOL COURSE OF PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION. 

KEQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION. 

A thorough knowledge of Practical Arithmetic, English Gram- 
mar, Local Geography, Orthography, Reading, History of the 
United States, Elements of Physiology, of Vocal Music, and of 
Drawing, and Elementary Algebra. 



ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 241 

COURSE OF INSTIiUCTION. 

1. Elementary Principles of Education 20 weeks. 

2. School Organization, (Jovernment, School Laws, History 

of Education, ^lethods of Reading and Study, etc 20 weeks. 

3. Practice Teaching 40 

4. Reading and Orthography 10 " 

5. Arithmetic 10 " 

6. English Grammar 10 

7. Geography 10 

8. History of the United States 5 " 

9. Vocal Music 10 " 

10. Drawing 10 " 

11. Penmanship 5 

12. Algebra 5 " 

13. Physiology 5 " 

14. Objective Teaching (Botany, Zoologj'. Physics) lo " 

ADVANCED ENGLISH PROFESSIONAL COURSE. 

REQtllREMRNTS FOR ADMISSION. 

In additiou to the requireuieiits i'or admission to the Conmion 
School Course, a good knowledge of the following l)ranches of 
study (a course equal to that of our best high schools is uiider- 
stood) : Higher Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Bookkeeping, 
English Composition, Rhetoric, English Literature, General His- 
tory, Mental Science, Botany, /-o'^logy, Physiciil ' reography, 
Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Civil Goveriinjein 

Equivalents for anv ■_>f thest' branches, <)r ot thiwe retjuired for 
admissiou to the course m languages, will be accepted, at the dis- 
cretion of the faculty, and students will be required to pursue 
those studies only iu the advanced professional courses, for which 
preparation was required for admission. 

COURSE OK INSTRUCn'ION. 

1. Elementary Professional Work. . . 5 weeks. 

2. Advanced Professional Work 35 

3. History of Education, School (roverument, Civil Govern- 

ment, etc 20 " 

4. Practice Teaching 40 " 

5. Arithmetic 5 "' 

6. Algebra 5 

7. Geometry, Trigonometry, etc 10 " 

8. Geography 5 " 

9. Physiology and Zoology 5 " 

10. Botany 5 

10 



242 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

11. Astronomy 5 weeks. 

12. Geology 5 " 

18. Naluial Philosophy aiul Laboratory Practice 5 " 

14. Chemistry and Lab )ratory Practice o " 

15. ithetoric, Grammar and Composition 5 

16. History and Literature 10 

17. Reading, etc 5 " 

18. Penmanship 5 " 

19. Drawing 5 

20. Vocal Music 5 " 

PROFESSIONAL COURSE IN LANGUAGES. 

REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION. 

In addition to the requirements for admission to the common 
school course a good knowledge of the following branches of 
study (a course equal to that of our best High Schools is under- 
stood :) Latin and Greek, or German and French, Algebra, 
Geometry, General History, Mental Science, Botany, Zoology, 
Physical Geography, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Civil Gov- 
ernment. 

COURSE OP INSTRUCTION. 

1. Elementary Professional Work 5 weeks. 

2. Advanced Professional Work 35 

3. History of Education, School Government, Civil Govern- 

ment, etc 20 " 

4. Practice Teaching 40 

5. Latin and Greek or German and French 30 

And any ten of the subjects, numbered 5 to 20 inclusive, in the pre- 
ceding course. 

SPECI.\L COURSES. 

Students may take, with the approval of the faculty, special 
courses which shall require attendance at not less than seventeen 
lectures, recitations, and exercises per week. 

Preparatory to these professional courses which were to engage 
the attention of students in the Normal School proper, and which 
graduates of high schools in good standing might enter and 
pursue, a full graded course including the subjects usually taught 
in primary, grammar and high schools, was prepared for the School 
of Observation and Practice. Students desiring to take either of 
the advanced professional courses, but not adequately equipped 
with academical knowledge, were to receive in the school the re- 
quired amount of instruction. Thus the Normal School proper 
was to become a strictly professional institution, and all academic 



ADDKESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 243 

iustruction except certain reviews was to be furnished by the 
Sciiool of Observation and Practice. The report of the Committee 
of the Board of Education, (juoted heretofore, exhibits the pro- 
posed administration <it" this scluxtl as to supervision and instruc- 
tion. 

This plan of work did nut prove satisfactory, and it was as to 
most of its distinguishing points, abandoned after a trial of about 
two years. The advocates of this change, among whom was the 
writer of this paper, did not take into sufficient account the fact 
that an almost indispensable element in the training of a teacher 
lies in the lessons set before him in the model presented by his own 
instructors, and that normal instruction is most effectively given 
by example and precept when it progresses step by step with the 
acquirements of the necessary academic knowledge. This is 
especially true in the acquisition of skill, in the orderly presenta- 
tion of the subjects of study and in methods of instruction gen- 
erally. Nothing more powerfully influences teachers in dealings 
with their pupils than their recollections of what was done for 
them iu the days of their pupilage ; and one of the most efficient 
i'actors in normal training is the correct example of normal teach- 
ers. In unprofessional schools the effort of the instructor is to 
secure to his pupil a thorough knowledge of mental power and 
mental btrength. The normal teacher adds to these a professional 
trend to all that is done and a professional color to all that is ac- 
quired. 

The new plan as suggested and adopted lacked that element 
of success and efficiency. Students whose ideas of methods had 
already firmly crystallized under influences of all kinds, good, bad 
and indifferent, were expected in a single year, divided between 
reviews and practice in teaching, to become skilled instructors and 
efficient in management and discipline. This was too much to 
expect, and the experiment was unsatisfactory in its results. It is 
true, also, that notwithstanding the great advance which has been 
made in the opportunities for primary and secondary instruction, 
that there are still many regions in Michigan where it is either 
impo.ssible or extremely difficult for young persons to obtain 
academic instruction suitable iu kind and adequate in extent to 
serve as a basis for a purely professional normal course ; and these 
are the localities where the need for trained teachers is most 
urgent. 



244: Michigan's semi-cbntennia.l. 

Though this experiment was on the whole unsuccessful, it 
was by no means barren of valuable results. It was made under 
circumstances which were, so far as the school was concerned, as 
favorable as could be expected. The faculty united in a request 
for the new departure and were, no doubt, earnest in promoting 
its success. It seems, therefore, that its failure was due to the 
fact that it was made too early, before the general educational 
condition of the State would warrant a change so radical. It also 
seems evident that a considerable period of time must elapse 
before it will be worth while to make another similar trial. 

Another very valuable result of the action above described, was 
the infusion into the school of greater earnestness in the direction 
of professional training. At the present time the Normal School 
is probably as thoroughly professional as the existing condition 
of general education will allow. While academic instruction, 
dominated and directed by earnest pedagogical spirit, receives its 
due and necessary share of attention, professional requirements 
are conspicuous and exacting in all the course of study. Public 
opinion seems to justify the present division between what is 
academic and what is strictly pedagogical, and to regard it as 
wise and just. 

All pupils are required, upon entering the Normal School, to 
sign the following declaration of intention : " I hereby declare 
that my purpose in entering the Normal School is to make prepa- 
ration for the work of teaching." 

Six courses of study are offered, as follows : Scientific, four 
years; Literary, four years; Ancient languages, four years; 
Modern languages, four years ; Special Course with Music, four 
years ; and English, three years. 

The Scientific course which is given below may be fairly 
regarded as showing the present average division between aca- 
demic and professional work in all the courses of the Normal 
School. 

SCIENTIFIC COURSE. 
First Year. 
thirst Term. Second Term. 

1. Arithmetic. 1. Algebra. 

2. GrHininar and Composiliou. i 2. Geography. 
8. Readiui^ and Oitiiography 3. Botatiy. 

4. Vocal Music. 4. Elementary Drawing. 



ADDRESS OF PltOF. J. M. I!. SILL. 



245 



Second 
First lerm. 
Algebra. 

History of the United Slates 
Advanced Drawing. 
Piiysiology and Hygiene, 15 
weeks; Narcotics, 5 weeks. 

Third 
Fiisl Term. 

1. Geometry. 

2. Comjiarative Zoology and Phy- 
siology, 10 weeks; Civil Govern- 
ment, 10 weeks. 

o. Outlines of History. 

4. Mental and Moral Science. 



Ye.vk. 

Second Term. 

1. Geometry. 

2. Rhetoric. 

3. Elementary Physics. 

4. Penmanship, 10 weeks; Zoology, 
10 weeks. 

Year. 

Second Term. 

1. Higher Algebra. 

2. English Literature. 

3. Professional Training in Com- 
mon Branches. 

4. Mental Science applied to Teach- 
ing, and School Management. 



Fourth Ye.\k. 



Term. 



First 

1. Chemistry. 

2. Higher Physics. 

3. Geology, 10 weeks; Bookkeep- 
ing, 10 weeks. 

4. Practice Teaching and Criticism; 
Essays. 



Second Term. 

1. Chemistry, 10 weeks; Astron- 
omy, 10 weeks. 

2. Trigonometry and Surveying. 

3. Political Science, 10 weeks; 
Training in Physical Science and 
History of Education, 10 weeks. 

4. Practice Teaching and Criti- 
cism; Essays. 



The catalogue for the current year thus outlines the course of 
instruction in Principles of Teaching and a portion of the Special 
Professional Training which the school offers: 



INSTRUCTION IN PRINCIPLES OF TKACIIING. 

This course enabraces a discussion of the 

1. Nature of purposes of education. 

2. Forces and agencies employed in the work and process of 

education. 

3. True province of schools and teachers. 

4. Nature, powers and faculties of the child. 

5. Laws, or conditions, which govern the developnaent and 

training of those powers and faculties. 

6. General application of these laws to means and methods of 

teaching. 

7. Organization, govornnient and general management of schools, 

including a consideration of the duties, rights ami obliga- 
tions of teachers, 

8. School system and school laws of Michigan. 



246 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

9. Progressive development of improved methods of teaching, 
illustrated by reference to the lives, labors and principles 
of the great leaders in educational reform and progress. 
10. Something of the history of schools, of school systems, and of 
education. 
The work indicated necessarily includes an elementary study 
of mental and moral science." 

special professional training. 

1. Pupils are required to note carefully the methods of instruc- 

tion pursued by teachers, and to be able, when a subject is 
completed, to give an accurate account, either orally or in 
writing, of the following points : 
(a). The order in which the topic was discussed. 
(6). The illustrations and devices used to enlist the attention of 

pupils, and to make plain the truth presented. 
[c). The method of drill employed to fix the truth permanently 
in the memory. 

2. The principles of teaching and school organization, based on 

the constitution and laws of the body and mind, are care- 
fully discussed. This is supplemented by special profession- 
al training in the common branches to secure in the pupils 
habits of teaching and governing in harmony with the prin- 
ciples discussed. This part of the work includes the follow- 
ing : 
(a). A discussion of the order which should be pursued in pre- 
senting given subjects to a class. 
{b). A discussion of the illustrations and devices that should be 
used to enable pupils to understand thoroughly the subject 
presented, and to fix a clear outline of it in the memory. 
(c). The preparation of sketches or outliue lessons which are sub- 
mitted to teachei's for criticism. 
(d). Teaching and governing in the Practice School under the 
guidance and instruction of competent teachers, whose duty 
it is to observe carefully, criticise and correct all defects. 
j^OTE — Any person who, as provided for under requisites for 
Higher Standings, sustains examinations or presents Certificates of 
Standing in all the academic subjects of any course, can complete 
the professional work of a course in one year. It is desirable, 
however, in order to get the full benefit of the professional and 
other work of the school, that a {)upil should spend Two Years in 
the institution." 

In the summer of 1871 a new departure was made in the con- 
stitution of the School of Observation and Practice. A plan 
similar to that followed at the Oswego Normal School was devised 
and tried for two years. An agreement was entered into between 



ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 247 

the State Board of Education and the School Board of the city 
of Ypsilanti, whereby the schools of the city were to become 
Schools of Observation, and to some extent, Schools of Practice 
for the pupils of the Normal School. This plan proved unsatis- 
factory and was abandoned after a comparatively brief trial. Of this 
plan and of the probable results of any future attempts in the 
same direction, Professor D. Putnam, at tliat time director of the 
School of Practice and an earnest worker in behalf of the success 
of the new arrangement, has since said (State Superintendent's 
Report for 1881, p. 76) : "No such arrangement can be adopted 
here with even the slightest reasonable anticipations of making it 
profitable or satisfactory either to the city or to the Normal School. 
The Practice School must be entirely undt-rthe same management 
and control as the Normal. Any divided authority or interest 
will be fatal to efficiency and usefulness." 

This attempt to use the local public schools as Schools of Obser 
vation and Practice connected with the Normal School, is worthy 
of notice here, because from time to time the suggestion is renewed 
by those who are probably unaware that the experiment ha 
already proved unsuccessful under circumstances as favorable as 
any are likely to exist at any future time. 

The present School of Observation and Practice dates its begin- 
ning in the year 1872 immediately after the abandonment of the 
plan noted above. It is now a regularly graded school, comprising, 
however, only the eight years of primary and grammar school 
work. Its instructors are the students of the Normal School in 
the last year of their course. These teach under the immediate 
supervision of the director and his two assistant critic teachers. This 
supervision is also, to a considerable extent, supplemented by that 
of the teachers of several of the departments in the Normal 
School. 

As to the question whether Normal School graduates actually 
engage in teaching and whether the Normal School act uallv affects 
as it ought, the schools of this State, the tbllowing statistical 
table collated in 1884, and published in Superintendent's Report 
for 1884, p. 65, is instructive. The facts contained in it are valu- 
able and make an excellent showing for the Michigan Normal 
School. 



248 



MICHIGAN 8 SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 



STATISTICS OP TEACHING. 

1. Number of graduates in the full courses from the State 

Normal School from 1870 to 1880 inclusive 294 

2. Number of those who are known to have engaged in 

teaching 370 

3. Number from whom no report has been obtained 10 

4. Number known not to have engaged in teaching 14 

5. Per cent, known to have engaged in teaching 92 

a. Average length of time taught, on the basis of the whole 

number of graduates 5 years 

7. Average length of time taught, on the basis of the num- 

ber engaged in leaching 5.5 years 

8. Number of male graduates 126 

9. Number of males known to have engaged in teaching. . 113 

10. Number of males from whom no report has been ob- 

tained 2 

11. Number of males known not to have engaged in teaching 11 

12. Per cent, of males known to have engaged in teaching.. 89 

13. Average time taught, on the basis of the whole number 

of male graduates 5 years 

14. Average time taught, on the basis of the whole number 

of male graduates who engaged in teaching 5.6 years 

15. Number of female graduates 168 

16. Number of females known to have engaged in teaching 157 

17. Number of females from whom no report has been re- 

ceived 8 

18. Number of females known not to have engaged in 

teaching 3 

19. Per cent, of females known to have engaged in teaching 93 

20. Average time taught, on the basis of the whoie number 

of female graduates 5 years 

21. Average time taught, on the basis of the number of fe- 

male graduates who have engaged in teaching 5.4 years 

22. Number of male graduates known to have died 8 

23. Number of female graduates known to have died 4 

24. Total time that could have been taught if all these 

graduates had been teaching from the date of their 
graduation to the present time ; i. e., if all had at 
once gone to teaching, if none had died, stopped for 
a season, or abandoned the profession 3,380 years 

25. Males could have taught 1,246 

20. Females could have taught 1,334 

27. Time actually taught by these graduates 1,488 

28. Time actually taught by male graduates 639 

29. Time actually taught by female graduates 849 

30. Per cent, of actuality to possibility on the basis of the 

whole number of these graduates 62 



ADDRESS OF PKOF, J. M. B. SILL. 249 

31. Per cent, of actuality to possibility ou the basis of male 

graduates (31 

33. Per cent, of actuality to possibility on the basis of female 

graduates 63.6 

33. Whole numlier of graduates in all courses from 1854 to 

1884, inclusive 1,188 

Professor Daniel Putnam, Acting Principal, furnishes the fol- 
lowing of the increase in attendance in the Normal School proper 
since 1870 : 

Year. Attendance. Year. Attendance. Year. Attendance. 

1870-1 331 1876-7 366 1883-3 398 

1871-3 39G 1877-8 338 1883-4 475 

1872-3 339 1878-9 393 1884-5 519 

1873-4 364 1879-80 398 1885-6 628 

1874-5 409 1880-1 318 

1875-6 449 1881-3 330 

These figures indicate the steadily increasing prosperity of the 
school so far as numbers are concerned, the last year of its exist- 
ence exhibiting a much larger attendance than any preceding 
year. Other and more vital indications of genuine success and 
usefulness are not wanting. Those who have watched with friendly 
interest the progress of the Normal School through its career of a 
third of a century, have seen a steady advance in good scholar- 
ship, in a growing professional spirit without which a true Normal 
School is impossible; more and more, as the years roll on, its 
graduates are called to large resj)onsibilities in the educational 
field. It has the earnest support of a great and influential body 
of thoroughly loyal admirers who are watchful of its interests and 
proud of its successes. All present indications point to a still 
more prosperous future, full of help for the great work of universal 
education in Michigan. 



ADDIIESSKS AT AGIirCULTUllAL HALL. 



Hon. S. T. READ, Presiding. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Pioneers of Michigan: It is 
emiuently fitting that we, the people of one of the greatest States 
of the Union, should come up to our beautiful capital, from every 
town and hamlet within its borders, to celebrate the fiftieth anni- 
versary of its birth. It is fitting to pause and look back through 
all those years to the beginning of all this goodly heritage ; and 
from the progress of the past gather lessons of value to guide us 
in the development of that higher civilization for which we strive. 
But it is particularly appropriate for us, old pioneers who came 
to Michigan years before it was admitted as a State, when it was 
still a trackless wilderness, with only here and there a trading- 
post ; and who cleared the way and laid the foundations for this 
great commonwealth, to gather here to-day, to note and rejoice 
over all that the brain and muscle of Michigan's sons and daugh- 
ters have wrought for their beloved State. No other American 
State has made a more gratifying progress than that of Michigan. 
With a population of but 31,000 in l-SoO, it now has about 2,000,- 
000, and its increase in wealth has been commensurate with its 
growth in numbers. The commercial position of our State, with its 
1,400 miles of lake navigation along its shores, and a water commu- 
nication with the Atlantic ocean, togetlier with its central position 
on the American continent, giving it access to a vast internal 
trade, is one possessing remarkable advantages, which our people 
have not been slow in improving. In the variety, richness and 
abundance of her natural resources, Michigan stands the peer of 
any State in the Union, if not actually superior to all of them. 
Her manufacturing industries are rapidly increasing. Our public 
school system is the pride of the State ; while the little educa- 
tional sprout that was planted at Aim Arbor forty years ago, and 
which we have nurtured with so much care, has grown and flour- 
ished, until its hospitable branches shelter not only youths from 
everv part of our land, but from foreign lands as well. Our pub- 



ADDRESS OF .TO FIN TI. RISSKI.L. 251 

lie buildiugs, churches, charities, reformatories and penal institu- 
tions are a credit to the State; and, beyond all, we are free from 
debt (i)ractica]ly). The future of our State is bright with prom- 
ise. Possessing, as it does, almost inexhaustible natural resources, 
it should be the homo of a contented and prosperous people for 
ages to come. 



FISH AND FISH CULTURE IN MICHIGAN. 

.JOHN H. BISSELL. 

The abundant natural supply offish in the waters of this State 
has played so important a part in its settlement and development 
that any history of the State, or its people, which omitted men- 
tion of its fish or fisheries, would be incomplete. In the pres- 
ent and near future the o|)erations of the State's establishments 
for fish culture, are, and will be, useful and important factors in 
the further development of the State, and assist in solving one at 
least of the urgent economic probl'ems which must be met by 
every community as its population increases, — that of cheap and 
wholesome food supply. 

We know something of the great (}uantities of fish that were 
found in our waters by the early settlers, and those who came to 
trade with the Indians before any permanent settlements existed 
outside of the fur trading posts, from the accounts that have been 
happily preserved for us in that charming field of history, the 
discovery, explorations and settlement of " New France." The 
great abundance of fish during those times is also evident from 
the fact of their easy capture, in comparatively large quantities, 
by the rudest of fishing appliances. The Indians of this region 
lived very largely upon fish ; and so, too, did the fur traders. 
Their highways were the lakes and rivers which served as well as 
supplied larders, always at hand. Jacques Cartier says, in 1535, 
the Indians on the St. Lawrence River "had in their houses ves- 
sels as big as any butt or tun in which they preserved their fish." 
From which it is evident the fish were captured not only for the 
summer use, but to carry them through the winter. Other writers 
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have told us of the peri- 
odical migration of Indian tribes, living in IJi)por Canada, to 
convenient places on the lakes and rivers, to lay in stores offish for 



252 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

their winter use. La Hontan, a French officer who visited the 
lakes in the year 1688, mentions a tribe of Indians "\yho procured 
their subsistence mainly from the fish which abounded at the foot 
of the rapids" of the Ste. Marie's River. Pere Marquette (1671), 
La Salle (1679) and Charlevoix (1721) made frequent allusions 
in their narratives, to the bountiful supply offish and its recog- 
nized importance to themselves and to the natives. 

The earliest notice I have found of the fish in Lake Erie is by 
Baron La Hontan in 1688. La Hontan says : " It abounds with 
sturgeon and white fish, but trouts are very scarce in it as well the 
other fish that we take in the lakes of Huron and Illinese " (Michi- 
gan). Down to the time of the organization of Michigan as a State, 
all sources of information now attainable agree in the statement 
that the fish were so plentiful the supply was deemed inexhaustible. 
That was before the days of rapid and improved methods of trans- 
portation, the absence of which necessarily restricted the market. 
That was, also, before the introduction of modern fishing appli- 
ances. Then the catching of fish was for home consumption 
entirely, and of course with a thin and scattered population the 
demand was a limited one, easily supplied from time to time. 
The apparatus then used in fishing was limited in quantity, rude 
in construction, and as compared with modern fishing rigs as the 
boy's sail-boat to an iron steamship. From the earliest settle- 
ments to about 1830, industrial fishing was almost exclusively 
confined to the Indians and the employees of the Hudson's Bay, 
American and Northwest Fur Companies ; the former organized in 
1696, the latter in 1783. These companies were established for 
prosecuting fur trade with the Indians, the first great incentive to 
exploration and settlement of the upper lakes ; but, as that indus- 
try became less profitable, they turned their attention to catching 
and trafficking in fish. Blois' Gazetteer of Michigan, published in 
1835, says of the fish product of the great lakes : " Their quan- 
tities are surprising and apparently so inexhaustible as to war- 
rant the belief that were a population of millions to inhabit the 
lake shores, they would furnish ample supplies of this article of 
food without sensible diminution.'' We may smile at such a 
belief now with the experience of what fifty years of fishing have 
done, but the statement probably embodied the general opinion 
of the community of that day upon this subject. 

Mr. Lauman in his history of Michigan published in 1839 says. 



ADDRESS OF JOIIN H. 15ISSELL. 253 

that then the hikes abounded witli fish of various kinds, mention- 
ing sturgeon, Mackinac trout, " nuiskallonge " and whitefish, the 
latter only being important as an article of commerce. At that 
time industrial fishing was mainly confined as to locality, to the 
Detroit, St. Clair and Ste Marie rivers, the Straits of Mackinac, 
the extreme southeastern end of Lake Superior and Saginaw Bay. 
" Whitefish," he says, "were caught in large quantities around 
Mackinac, Sault Ste. Marie and the other waters connecting the 
great lakes. They are packed in barrels and transported to New 
York and Ohio." 

The Detroit river formerly maintained extensive and profitable 
white fisheries. The fish were not only abundant but of a super- 
ior quality. These fish, although sometimes called the Detroit 
River whitefish, are really Lake Erie fish. They pass the 
greater part of their lives in Lake Erie, feeding and living there, 
and only moving uj) the river late in October, through Novem- 
ber, and part of December, for fhe purpose of spawning along 
the channel banks of the river. It must not be understood that 
all the whitefisl) in Lake Erie make Detroit river their breeding 
grounds, for vast uuml)ers of them found suitable sj)awning places 
on the reefs, ledges and shoals about the islands at the western 
end of the lake. As the whitefish possesses in common with all 
the members of the salmon family to which it belongs, the 
instinct to return and deposit its ova in the place of its own 
nativity, it may not be inappropriate to designate such of the 
Lake Erie fish as seek the river for the purpose of reproduction, 
as the Detroit River whitefish, although no structural difference 
distinguishes them from the other whitefish of the Lake. 

As late as 18')6 and 1837, such statistics as we have, indicate 
that the Detroit river yielded nearly one-half of the total num- 
ber of pounds of fish caught in the Great Lakes for those years. 
In 1859 the value of the catch in the river was put at $75,000, 
all whitefish. In 18()7 Mr. George Clark, a man of great exper- 
ience and an accurate observer, estimates the yield of the river at 
500,000, averaging in weight three pounds. The Board of Trade 
Review put the number of wiiitefish received at Detroit in 1803 
at over 900,000. This would of course include nearly all of the 
fish caught in Lake St. Clair besides those taken in Detroit river. 

Mr. Lanman's "Red Book '' of 1H71, notices that the whitefish 
are becoming scarce in all the rivers. The account says that "for- 



254 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

raerly as many as (5,000 fish have been taken at a single haul of a 
seine. At present (1^71) 2,000 is considered a big haul." To 
note and emphasize the difference, which has come about in these 
fisheries in the past fourteen years, let me call your attention to 
the fact, that one of the best fisheries of the river, in 1885, pro- 
duced less than 2,000 whitefish for the entire season's fishing. 

The River St. Clair has always produced great quantities offish, 
the pike-perch or wall-eyed pike being the most abundant. In 
1830, and for a number of years thereafter, immigration to the 
shores of the Detroit and St. Clair rivers increased very rapidly. 
The settlers found it difficult to obtain a supply of other food, and 
from necessity were largely dependent upon the product of the 
fisheries. The Rev. O. C. Thompson, in a paper read before the 
Detroit Pioneer Society in 1828, says, " More and better fish were 
taken from the St. Clair river than at any other fisheries, and the 
fish were larger than those of the Detroit river," and they were 
sold at $1.50 per hundred fish. The St. Clair fisheries have 
passed into history, (as have most of those on the Detroit river), 
excepting perhaps two or three points where the pike-perch or 
pickerel, as they are locally named, are caught by seining, in 
limited numbers. The present season, which closed last week, 
has proved the poorest ever known. From the earliest times of 
which we have any record, the Lake and River St. Clair have been 
noted for the abundance and good quality of their fish, and even 
now the St. Clair flats are famous for black bass fishing. 

The first industrial fishing on Lake Huron was commenced in 
1835, with small sail boats and gill nets. The principal product 
was whitefish and salmon trout, which were salted and sold in 
Detroit. 

The great fur trade which centered at Mackinac, early brought 
into prominence the fishing grounds of that locality. From its 
great abundance there the lake or salmon trout was named the 
" Mackinac Trout." Father Marquette mentions besides the white 
fish, "sturgeon, herring and three vaiieties of lake trout," as 
abounding in the waters of the straits, and fifty years later Char- 
levoix was surprised by the number, and charmed by the qualities 
of the whitefish of those waters. The experience of one fisher- 
man will illustrate most strikingly the change which the use of 
modern fishing apparatus lias wrought in these waters. 

Mr. Noel La Ville informs us, that he began fishing at Macki- 



ADDRESS OF .lolIK II. BISSELL. 255 

iiac ill 184-"! with 12 gill nets, and could then take more fish than 
he can now witli 240 gill nets. The value of the Mackinac catch 
has averaged about one-tenth of the total [)roduct of our waters 
until iSTo, since which time its relative im[)ortance has steadily 
declined, though not in a more marked degree than other points 
once as prolific. 

No figures representing the fishing products of Lake Michigan 
are found earlier than 1859, at which time Mr. Strickland's" Old 
Mackinac" places the catch at 30,500 barrels, valued at $270,000, 
and the twine in use in the Michigan waters of the lake at G,(J70 
gill nets, no steam vessels being then used there. 

As late as 1871 Lanman's " Red Book" classes Beaver Islands, 
Green Bay and other [joints on the east shore of Lake Michigan 
as inferior in product to Mackinac, Detroit River and the west 
shore of Lake Huron. A very striking change is reported in the 
relative quantities of whitefish and herring in Green Bay on the 
Menominee shore during the past ten years. In 1875 whitefish 
comprised three-fourths of the catph, in 1885 the herring were 
about seven-eighths of the total. 

But little is known of the fishing industry of Lake Superior 
prior to 1833. Blois' Gazetteer published that year reports " the 
only productions of the Upper Peninsula which are a source of 
profit, are the fish and furs, the latter is on a decline, but the 
former gives evidence of an inexhaustible supply of the finest 
tpiality." In J841 the American Fur Company took two schoon- 
ers over the rapids of the Ste. Marie to use in fishing on Lake 
Superior. 

From the foregoing it appears that around our coast of two 
thousand miles, at the time Michigan became a State, the waters 
were teeming with fish in (juantities deemed inexhaustible by the 
people of that generation. Fifty years have made as great a change 
in those fisheries as has been manifested in some other industries, 
but the change here has been an unfortunate one. As reliable 
statistics as could be found of fishing product prior to 1875 are 
given in a note to this paper ; a comparison of tiiem very briefly, 
with a valuable re[)ort made by Mr. Lyman A. Brant, as statisti- 
cal agent of the State Board of Fish Commissioners, on the fish- 
ing season of 1885, will enable us to gather a lesson worth learning. 
For example, take the east shore of Lake Michigan. It appears 
that in 185'J this coast yielded 17,200 barrels of fish ; in 1885 



256 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

12,789 barrels ; iu 1859 the fishing was done with 5,350 gill nets 
and 58 sail boats; in 1885 there were in use 11,074 gill nets, 107 
pound nets, operated by 23 steam tugs and 91 sail boats. While 
the capacity of t he apparatus was increased in efficiency more 
than 200 per cent., the product fell off more than 35 per cent. 
The earlier operations were conducted comparatively near the 
shore, those of the last season, with improved sail boats and steam 
tugs, 25 and 30 miles out into the open lake. With a coast line 
the same in both cases the acreage of waters covered is probably 
more than trebled. 

Mr. Lanman's "Red Book" of 1871 estimates the total fish 
product of the State as $1,000,000 per annum. The Michigan 
Census Report in 1874 places the catch of 1873 as 114,669 barrels, 
which at the prices ruling then would make the value of the pro- 
duct something over 11,000,000. 

The catch of 1885 was 26,381,875 pounds, or in barrels 109,923, 
valued at first cost at $791,456, to gather which required over 
1,800 men, 1,109 pound nets, 27,635 gill nets, 333 fykes and seines, 
with 68 steam and 725 other boats, and an invested capital of 
$1,200,000 (the estimated amount of capital invested in our fish- 
eries in 1873, by the census return was $334,091). 

The most complete investigation into the value and extent of 
catch, capital invested, and other points connected with the fish- 
eries, of which any record has been found, was that made under 
the direction of the State Fishery Board in 1885; and it is desired 
to make public acknowledgment of the intelligent and untiring 
eflfbrts of the agent, Mr. Brant, for the valuable service to the 
State. The common methods of fishing prior to 1830 were with 
spear, hook and line ; dip nets, seines were used to some extent, 
and at a few points upon the upper lakes gill nets were used as 
early as 1781. The Indians of the upper lakes used gill nets 
made from strips of elm bark. In McKenzie's Voyages is found 
a good description of the stone and tioat gill nets, which corres- 
pond exactly to many nets of that kind still in use at points on 
the upper lakes. McKenzie's nets were sixty fathoms long by 
fifteen meshes of five inches in depth. The gill nets now generally 
used have a leaded line upon the bottom, with cork floats on the 
upper line to which the net is fastened. 

Pound nets were introduced into Lake Erie between the years 
1840 and 1850, and were first used in the upper lakes, about the 



ADDHKSS OF .lOHX H. BISSKLl.. 257 

Straits, in 1858 or 18")9. Their increased use can be judged from 
the number reported in 1885, being 1,109. 

A glance at the reported product after the introduction of pound 
net fishing, shows phiinly the effect they have had upon the fish- 
eries. In 1859, the year of their introduction, the product 
increased sixty-nine per cent, over the average preceding five 
years. In 18(50, when they came into more general use, an 
increase of 244 per cent, over the average of the preceding six 
years was shown, and about 127 per cent, over that of 1S59. The 
years 1861 and 1862 show a marked decrease from the yield of 
the two precedinii^ years. Unfortunately we have no reliable 
figures at hand or to be obtained which would bring the compari- 
son further down by years consecutively, but we have the general 
results of 1885, which show conclusively that with the increase of 
net and area of waters fished, the product has not risen in any- 
thing like due proportion, but on the contrary exhibits a large 
ratio of decrease. No waters can long withstand the indiscrimi- 
nate use of this kind of net. 

The area of land comprised in the' State of Michigan is 56,457 
square miles. The superficial area of water within the territorial 
limit of Michigan, over which the State has complete executive, 
legislative and judicial jurisdiction, is not far from 88,000 square 
miles. Our coast line, including bays and islands, is 2,000 miles 
in length. The value in money of the fishing product of these 
waters in 1885 was about 8800,000. The product of the same 
fisheries with the same efficiency of apparatus a> in 1885, if the 
quantities of fish available had been equal to what we have seen 
they were at any time previous to 18 )9, could not have been less 
than twelve or fifteen millions of dollars. 

The varieties of fish indigenous to our waters in the onhn* of 
their commercial value are: Whitefish, lake trout, pickerel, 
herring, sturgeon, perch, bass, pike, catfish and suckers. The 
literature of this subject is so complete in these days, when every 
State in the Union is publishing fishery reports, besides the 
numerous exhaustive treaties published by the United States gov- 
ernment through its fish commission, that any description of the 
characteristics, qualities and habits of these well-known varieties 
would be an unpardonable repetition of what is generally known. 
I therefore pass to fish-culture, as it has been, and is, in Mich- 
17 



258 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

igan, and as my experience and judgment teach me it ought to 
be in this great State in the near future. 

The earliest effort to rear whitetish by artificial methods was 
made in 1857 by some gentlemen in Connecticut ; but it failed, 
as most first experiments do. 

The first experiments in Michigan were undertaken by Mr. N. 
W. Clark, at Clarkston, Oakland county, in 1869, and were 
attended with enough success to induce him to repeat them the 
following year. The eggs were procured from the fishery of Mr. 
George Clark, opposite Ecorse, Detroit river, and the result was 
better than in 1869. In 1871, having improved his quarters and 
learned that in temperature of water he must come as near as 
practicable to natural conditions, he impregnated about one-half 
a million of eggs, and hatched, in a healthy condition, about 
fifty per cent. In 1872 the number of eggs taken was one million, 
of which nearly one-quarter million were successfully shipped to 
California, in a partly developed state, for hatching and planting 
there, by the Uuitad States Fish Commission. These experiments 
were made with the apparatus then commonly used in hatching 
trout, consisting of a series of shallow trays having wire screen 
bottoms, upon which the eggs were spread, placed in a long 
trough, through which the water flows with a gentle current. 
Cotemporaneous experiments were being prosecuted in Canada 
and New York, which somewhat aided in the general results. In 
1872, Mr. Holtou, an assistant of Mr. Seth Green, in New York, 
devised a great improvement in hatching apparatus, which per- 
mitted the handling of a much larger quantity of eggs. It con- 
sisted of a deep box in which the trays were placed on each 
other, the water being introduced from the bottom, and circulating 
upwards through the wire bottoms of the trays. Shortly after 
that, Mr. N. W. Clark invented a hatching apparatus in which 
the water was taken from the top and run down through the 
trays, and was allowed to escape into the next box and repeat the 
same operation. 

In 1870 some leading fishermen of Detroit had erected tempor- 
ary troughs which they supplied with ova, but it was readily seen 
that the work must be undertaken for the supply of the great 
lakes, if at all, by the State government, and efibrts to that end 
were accordingly made, but without success. This effort to induce 
the State to engage in fish culture, was the best demonstration 



ADDKES8 OF jou:n h. bisskll. 259 

tliat could be made that the fisheries were decliniug, and resort 
to artificial aid was required to pieserve the stock of" fish. Mr. 
J. P. Clark, Mr. George Clark, Mr. A. M. Campau and Mr. 
James Craig of Detroit were the promoters of this effort. The 
success attendiug the whitefish experiments interested a number 
of observing men, who took the time to urge the subject of fish 
culture as a branch of public business upon the attention of the 
Legislature, with the result that in 1873 an act was passed con- 
stituting a State Board of Fish Commissioners. While this step 
was urged b) many intelligent citizens, the influence of Gov. Bag- 
ley was probably more potent than that of any other, and by the 
act the Governor was made one of the Commissioners. Besides 
the Governor the first Board consisted of Mr. George Clark of 
Wayne, and Mr. A. J. Kellogg, then of Allegan County. Mr. 
George H. Jerome of Niles, who had at first been apjiointed a 
Commissioner, resigned and accepted the position of Superintend- 
ent of Fisheries, and vigorously inaugurated the work which has 
since made Michigan somewhat conspicuous as a leader in this 
department. 

During the winter of 1873-4, before the State had established 
its hatching stations, one million and a half of whitefish ova were 
hatched for the State by Mr. N. W. Clark at Clurkston, and the 
following year about two millions were hatchrd in the same way. 
During these first years of the Commissioner's work, by the courtesy 
of the U. S. Fish Commission, Michigan received considerable 
allotments of ova of the Atlantic and California salmon, and of 
the fresh water salmon of Maine, all of which were hatched at the 
State hatchery then established at Pokagon in Cass county. 
These fish were planted in many brooks and rivers, and some 
lakes. 

True to their instincts, they left the streams, dropping down 
into Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie, and not much trace of 
them has since been found. A few have been caught at difi*ei-eut 
times for some years, and even last season two or three were 
reported by fishermen. We do not regard it as conclusively 
proved that the x\.tlantic salmon cannot be established in the 
great lakes above Niagara Falls. What we do know is that the 
experiment was made with so few fish for the size of the waters, 
that it would only be surprising if it proved anything, which it 
does not. The Schoodic salmon, on the other hand, in the case 



260 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

of one lake in Kalkaska county, have made a marvelous growth, 
from which those competent to form an opinion are confident of 
the ultimate establishment of this fish in some of our large north- 
ern interior lakes, as well as in the waters of the Straits and Lake 
Superior. 

In 1875 the whitefish work was started in Detroit under the 
immediate supervision of Mr. Oren M. Chase. Nearly ten rail- 
lions of eggs were laid in that fall for hatching by the Holton Box 
method. The work of that and the three succeeding years is 
important, principally, for the experience it furnished Mr. Chase, 
leading as such experience did, to the most valuable improve- 
ment which has yet been discovered in hatching whitefish eggs, 
or other fish eggs of similar specific gravity and habit. The older 
methods were expensive and cumbersome when applied to exten- 
sive operations. They were all, however, successive steps of pro- 
gress. 

The invention of Mr. Chase was a glass jar with a capacity of 
from one to one and a half gallons, into which the water was 
introduced through a glass tube, bell-shaped at the bottom, rest- 
ing on small knobs or feet, which permitted the water to escape 
upwards, through the jar on all sides, to be discharged over a 
metal spout. This upward current of the w'ater gives a gradual 
but constant motion to the eggs, which is necessary to prevent 
adhesion, and is more natural than nature. The flow of water 
separates the bad from the good eggs, and does away with con- 
stant manipulation, which is expensive and inconvenient, and 
makes it possible to handle a large number of eggs in a small 
space, the water doing the greater part of the work. The Chase 
Automatic Jar makes it possible to produce at a very reasonable 
cost, enough young fry to restock the depleted fisheries of the Great 
Lakes. The average capacity of the glass jars used in the white 
fish oj)erations at Detroit and Petosky, is 134,000 eggs. The 
present whitefish operations are conducted at Petoskey with 208 
jars, and at Detroit 312 jars, giving a total capacity of 09,080,000 
eggs each season, which exceeds the amount of any of the other 
States, and is only exceeded by the General Government fishery 
work. The average loss on the first count is from 10 to 15 per 
cent. 

The most popular department of fish culture is the rearing of 
brook trout, because its results are more quickly seen, Ah-eady 



ADDRESS Op' .lOlIN II. l!lSSi:i.I.. . 'HM 

in many counties in the northern, central, and western parts of 
the lower peninsula good trout fishing is found, in streams where 
this fish was unknown before it was planted by the State. The 
trout work was conducted at Pokagon until 1880, when that 
property was given up and a location made at Paris, Green town- 
ship, Mecosta county, where the State has ac(iuired title to 119 
acres of laud, for the purpose of controlling suitable streams. 
Here extensive ponds have been and are being constructed, for 
the purpose of holding stock fish for breeding, and the streams 
utilized as wild nurseries. The station at Paris is within a quarter 
of a mile of the depot of the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad, 
convenient shipping fticilities being important for the extensive 
work done there. 

An abundance of brook trout serves two desirable purposes for 
the people, in furnishing them nutritions food to vary the mon- 
otony of form fare, as well as giving an opportunity for healthful 
sport ; and, secondly, in attracting visitors to the localities for 
fishing, whose expenditures of money help the business of the 
community. 

The present State fishery establishment consists of a Board of 
three commissioners appointed by the Governor and a force of 
about nine men regularly employed, the Commission having an 
oflSce in Detroit, with a Secretary whose entire time is devoted to 
the work of the Commission. The stations are at Detroit, where 
the culture of whitefish and pickerel is conducted. This house 
has a capacity of 42,000,000 of whitefish. Its capacity for pick- 
erel work is greater than the number of eggs obtainable has ever 
permitted, the largest take of pickerel eggs having been 28, 000,- 
000; at Paris, Mecosta county, where all kinds of trout work is 
carried on, including experiments with the grayling, Thia sta- 
tion has a capacity for handling 1, -500,000 brook trout, 800,000 
lake trout, and all the land-locked salmon and grayling that can 
be procured ; at Petoskey for whitefish with a i)resent capacity 
of 26,000,000 ; at Glenwood, Cass county, where there is located 
a station for the cultivation of German carp, which station has a 
capacity fully equal to any demands the State may make upon it. 
Extensions of this work, which are contemplated by the Commis- 
sion as necessary, will be made as soon as funds are provided, 
enabling the Commission to engage in the propagation of muskal- 
longe and black bass, for the rearing of which Michigan has most 



262 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

suitable waters. The time is near at hand when we shall be 
called upon to save the sturgeon fishing of the great lakes, the stur- 
geon bringing a higher average price in the market to-day, than 
the whitefish or trout. 

What is the significance of these facts ? Ten times the space 
might easily have been filled without exhausting the authorities or 
facts. Such facts and their meaning, as one charged with a meas- 
ure of responsibility in the supervision of the State fisheries, I 
deem it my duty to lay before this audience. Even the briefest 
historical notice of the fisheries leads inevitably to one conclusion, 
and forces upon us the urgent inquiry, can our fisheries now be 
saved, or is their ruin inevitable? While we have not yet learned 
all there is to know about the culture of fish and the artificial pro- 
pagation of them, enough is known, scientifically and experiment- 
ally, to place the practical art of fish-culture beyond the domain 
of mere curious research, and its results are already sufficiently 
demonstrated to enable us to answer without hesitation, that if 
given sufficient support by the State government, we shall find 
a reasonable and sufficeutly affirmative answer to the inquiry above 
suggested. 

When I speak of fish-culture as furnishing the sufficient remedy 
for the evils already pointed out, I mean to include in the term 
not only the artifical propagation of fish, but also the protection 
of them by reasonable, municipal regulation until they are mar- 
ketable ; and in the combination of these two things we have the 
complete definition of fish-culture as a practical art. The demon- 
stration of what fish-culture can do for the State, is not generally 
understood. There are sufficient reasons why it has not yet been 
able to make a complete demonstration of what it can ultimately 
do, by accomplishing all the results that some of its enthusiastic 
friends have looked for. To satisfy any reasonable man that fish- 
culture can again restore our fisheries and fill the great lakes with 
marketable fish, it is not necessary that that fact should be actually 
done. If it is possible to restore the fisheries at two or three aver- 
age places, there is no reason to doubt tiiat when carried on upon 
a sufficient scale, it will be able to work the same beneficial results, 
at least for all waters similarly situated. In the sense that a com- 
plete demonstration can only be ma<le by accomplishing the whole 
result sought, fish-culture has not yet had a fair chance. 

1. It has not been conducted upon an adequate scale. Where 



ADDRKSS OF JOHN H. BISSELL. 268 

we are now hatchiug about 50,000,000 of whitcfish per year, we 
need to hatch from six to eight times that number to restore the 
wasted grounds, as well as to replenish and keep good the stock in 
those waters that are not yet productive. 

Again, artificial propagation has not had a fair chance in point 
of time. It is only within the first three years of the second de- 
cade of its existence, say from 1882 or 1883, that the practical 
operations offish-culture have been anything more than the mer- 
est experiments. It is only within that time that the State has 
hatched and planted over 15,000,000 of whitefish in any one 
year. The same period will also cover the most extensive opera- 
tions of the United States Fish Commission in that direction. 
The force of this will be readily appreciated when it is under- 
stood that from our present knowledge we have no right to expect 
important results from these plants before the expiration of four, 
proiiably five, and possibly six years from the time they were 
made. Operations during the first decade were, as I have said, 
but ex[)eriments, and they were successful beyond anything we 
could in reason expect. The only places where they were not 
entirely successful, were in some of the inland lakes, where with 
our present knowledge of the habits and needs of whitefish, those 
fish would not now be planted. But there are without doubt quite 
a large number of interior lakes where whitefish can be grown 
successfully and in large quantities. It must be remembered in 
jinlging of the results of fish-culture, that the ruin caused by 
wasteful and unconscionable methods of fishing, the results of 
which fish-culture is called upon to repair, has been going on for 
thirty or forty years; and it is always more difficult to cure than 
to prevent disease, whether physical, political or economical. 

Again, fish-culture has not had a fair chance, because we have 
lacked proper municipal regulations of the methods of fishing. 
It is not enough that we should be able to put into the waters of 
the lakes each year enough young fish to take the place of the 
adults captured and marketed. The fish must be protected until 
they come to mature or marketable age, otherwise our work will 
be lost. Artificial propagation alone cannot accomplish the result. 
Neither can legal regulations do it alone, within a period that 
will avail anything for one generation, and possibly not even 
then. The two things are nuitually dependent conditions. They 
must concur to assure valuable and lasting success. 



264 



MICHIGAN S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 



There is not time here to review the arguments or state in 
detail what regulation is needed, but only to suggest that the 
destruction of immature fish must be prevented, and discretionary 
authority given to fishery oflBcers to prohibit fishing at times and 
in places where unmarketable fish will be destroyed and some 
equitable system of license as incidental to municipal regulation, 
which will furnish the means to pay the necessary cost, not only 
of regulation, but ultimately of artificial propagation. 

An important condition, which cannot be provided for by stat- 
ute law, is the spread of reliable information regarding the pur- 
poses and operations of the State's fishery department among the 
people of the State, which will create a healthy public opinion in 
support of the laws, and their strict and just enforcement. The 
practical art of fish-culture, carried on under the conditions above 
indicated, can make the barren waters of this State productive 
again, arrest the depletion of fisheries now valuable, and cultivate 
to its natural capacity of productiveness, for the benefit of the 
State, this great public domain. The waters are here and cannot 
be alienated. Shall not the State cultivate them? 



SCHEDULE 1. 

PISHING STATISTICS FOR THE YEAR 1800. — FROM CENSUS REPORTS. 



Capital. 

Bay $ 15,000 

Berrien 6,200 

Chippewa 9,000 

Delta 5,700 

G'd Traverse. ... 200 

Huron 9,800 

Leelanaw.. . . 4,050 

Mackinaw 47,000 

Manistee .. 1,000 

Manitou 7,000 



Bbls. 


Value. 


6,000 


$ 48,000 


3..375 


25,500 


3,200 


19,600 


2,509 


15,368 


8ti 


688 


4,200 


30,690 


l,32ti 


10,608 


7,843 


103,938 


793 


6,.344 


6,000 


42,000 



Capital. Bbls. Valueo 

Marquette $ 1,000 620 $ 3,66 

Mason 4,100 1,130 7,60 

Oceana 2,200 950 6,65 

Ontonagon 2,100 1,000 6,000 

Ottawa 8,000 5,800 34,600 

St. Clair 725 8.50 .5,090 

Wayne 54,700 3,375 29,300 

$178,375 59.057 $395,6.36 



SCHEDULE 2. 

STATISTICS FOR THE YEAR 1863, BY COUNTIES. 



Bbls. Capital. 

Alpena 2,000 $ 8,000 

Bay 792 1,7.50 

Berrien 1,7.50 .3,000 

Cheboygan 1,200 1,200 

Chippewa 1,216 4,095 

Delta 130 400 

Emmet 203 995 

Houghton 347 725 

Huron 700 3,000 

Iosco 6,000 8.0(K) 

Keweenaw .50 200 

Leelanaw 390 860 

Mackinaw 9,000 60,000 

Manistee 237 .500 

Mason 825 1,200 



Menominee 1,002 

Monroe 2,050 

Muskegon 1,000 

Oceana 100 

Ontonagon 85 

Ottawa 1,483 

Sanilac 2,045 

Shiawassee 46 

St. Clair .575 

Tuscola 100 

Van Buren 1.50 

Wayne 3,822 

Unorganized Counties... 2,600 



Bbls. Capital. 



$ 



5,000 
4,180 
1,200 
200 
300 
4,675 
3,600 

800 

800 

600 

21,649 

8,500 



*39,488 $145,429 



*It will be noticed that some of the most important counties in the State for flsh 
product (St. Joseph, Saginaw and Grand Traverse) made no returns for this year. 



ADDKESS OF JOHN 0. lilSSELL. 



205 



SCHEDULE 3. 

STATISTICS KOH YEAK ENDING JUNE 1st. 187U, BY COUNTIES. 



Value Bbls. 

Mackinaw 103,tini 10,172 

Manistee 4,500 892 

Mason 5,544 59.3 

Menominee 34,771 3,575 

3Ionroe 30,490 1,790 

Mii.sl<eson 3,950 375 

Oceana 2.000 200 

Ontonagon 5,840 

Ottawa 36,990 8,100 

Sanilac 28,250 3,425 

St. Clair 4,240 655 

Van Buren 6,550 675 

Wayue 14.106 400 

8569,623 58,854 



Value Bbls. 

Alcona S3,t!TO 440 

Allegan 1,401 143 

Alpena 37,700 3,800 

Antrim 3,080 501 

Bay 9,850 1,015 

Benzie 1,200 120 

Berrien 37,750 

Chebo vgan 13.450 1 ,575 

Chippewa 18,(i(;3 2,.^)60 

Delta 15,399 1,711 

Emmet 23,000 2,899 

Grand Traverse 700 

Houghton 13,4ii0 1,6.50 

Huron 15,905 2,128 

Iosco 92,800 9,300 

Leelanaw .... 800 100 

Berrien, Grand Tni verse and Ontoiiai^ou counties made no returns. 
Number of fisheries reporting, 24;j, 
Men employed, 961. 

SCHEDULE 4. 

The earliest statistics of" the commercial value of the fisheries 
which have been obtaiiuul are from Blois' Gazetteer of Michigan 
(1888), and do not include returns from the Upper Peninsula : 

Uhls. Per bbl. 

1M80 8,0U0 I 5 00 

1S;56 11,400 10 13 

1^!37 1:5, oOO 9 32 

These fish were taken on the Detroit, St. Clair and .St. 
Mary rivers, the Straits of Mackinaw, the southeastern part of 
Lake Superior and Saginaw Bay. Tlie varieties are given for 
two years only, as follows : 

White and Trout. 

183(5 8,300 

1837 9,500 

Tiie whitefish and trout are given together in the statistics. Of 
the whitefish, 4,000 bbls. in 1836 and 2,500 bbls. in 1837, were 
taken in the Detroit river. The trout were caught with hooks 
principally, the other kinds with seines and gill nets. The pick- 
erel were mainly from Saginaw Ray and St. Clair river (pp. 
56-7). 

Population of Michigan in 1830, 28,000; 1 836, about 60,000. 



Pickerel. 


Herring. 


2,500 


600 


3,400 


600 



266 Michigan's semi-centennial. 



SCHEDULE 5. 

Roberts, in sketches of Detroit, estimates that 18,600 bbls. 
were shipped from there in 1854 (p. 19) ; that 35,000 bbls. were 
packed in the State in 1840, and 100,000 bbls. of all kinds in 
1854 (pp. 21-2). 

Strickland's Old Mackinaw gives the following as the catch of 
the points named for the year 1859: 

Bbls. Value. 

Port Huron to Point Au Barques (mostly white) 3,000 $ 25,(X)0 

Au Sable (% white, U trout) 6,000 50,000 

Thunder Bay and vicinity ( mostly white) 6,000 50,000 

Saginaw Bay and River j Pi^i^^and white;.; : ; ; ; : ; ! ' '. '. '. \ \ ; ; ; ! ; ; ; ; i:500 32,000 

Tawas (mostly white) 600 5,000 

Thunder Bay to Mackinaw (mostly white) 500 4,500 

Mackinaw (trout 1,875, white 5,625) 7,500 62,000 

Beaver Island group ( nearly all white) 7,000 59,000 

Green Bay in Michigan (white) 3,000 25.500 

Between Detour and Sault (% white) 1,000 8,000 

Little Traverse region 600 4.000 

Ludington 1.500 12,000 

Pentwater 2,000 16,500 

Montague and Whitehall 1,500 12,000 

Grand Haven 4,000 32.800 

Saugatuck 2,000 16,000 

South Haven 2,100 16,800 

St. Joseph 3,500 28,000 

New Buffalo 300 3,(i00 

Michigan City (Michigan fish) 3,000 30,000 

58,600 $492,100 

The number of bbls. caught in Lake Erie, including Maumee Bay, Detroit and 
St. Clair rivers and Lake St. Clair is not given, but its value is 106,000 

§598,100 



The total value of the catch is given at !|6'20,000, out of 
000 for the entire chain of the great lakes, which would make 
au estimated value of $21,900 for those of Lake Superior points 
not mentioned. Prices averaged $S per bbl. of 200 lbs., except 
in the vicinity of the Detroit and Chicago markets, where they 
were about 12 better. Whitefish brought about II more than 
ti'out or pickerel. Herring do not appear to have had any com- 
mercial valne. 

The total capital invested in fisheries at points named above is 
given at $252,000. 

The statistics for the year of 1859 only give number of gill nets 
and boats in use on east shore of Lake Michigan, as follows : 



Nets. Boats. 

Little Traverse. . . 300 6 

Ludiniiton 600 8 

Pentwuler 750 10 

Whitehall 500 5 

Grand Haven.... 800 8 



Nets. Boats. 

Sau-ratuck (500 (5 

South Haven (iOO (i 

St. Joseph 1,200 9 

5,350 58 



ADDRESS or JOHN II. I5ISSRLL. 



267 



The same places on the east shore of Lake Michigan had in 
service in 1885 the following rigs: 

Gill Nets. Pound Nets. Steam Tugs. Fish Boats. 

Little Traverse region... 1,010 

Liidington 494 

Pentwater VUl 

Whitehall 44.-) 

Grand Haven 1,906 

Saugatuck 1,017 

South Haven 77'* 

St. Joseph 2,814 

Grand Traverse region . . 2,483 

11.074 



33 


2 


31 


4 




9 


19 


1 


11 


14 


1 


11 


12 


4 


20 


12 


') 


9 




1 


2 


13 


8 


8 


25 


2 


53 



132 



25 



144 



The (iraml Traverse region includes Traverse Bay, Frankfort 
and points on the Lake Shore soutli to Manistee, for which no 
returns were iriven in 1859. 



SCHEDULE 6. 
The catch for the points named in 1855, was; 

Fkom Whom Bought. 



Little Traverse region.. 

Ludington 

Pentwater. . . 

Whitehall 

Grand Haven 

Saugatuck 

South Haven 

St. Joseph 



Grand Traverse Region. 



1 Whitefisli 
Pounds. 

198,4.57 
41,621 
.52.347 
15,386 
83,288 

146,237 
1.3,500 

28.5,818 

836,654 
.594,968 


Lake 

Trout, 

pounds. 


Herring, 
pounds. 


Other 
kinds, 
pounds. 


1.50,.539 

17,230 

23,189 

8,087 

109.655 

52,750 

9,000 

321,993 

693,443 
347,443 


31,995 

7,937 

130,4.36 

100 

'5,660 

178,408 
3,900 


28,378 
500 
68,2.58 
80,438 
104,993 
116,000 
1,000 
103,M9 

50.3,116 
12,781 

515,897 


1,431,632 

1 


939,885 


183,308 



■rntal Equiva- 

i,„,^ l<?nt in 
pounds, j^i^, 



409,.369 
58.851 
146.744 
lll,8;i8 
428,373 
31.5,087 
23,500 
716,359 



2,210.120 
859.092 



3,069,112 



1,706 
^5 
611 
466 

1,785 

1,313 
98 

2,985 



9,209 
3,580 



12,879 



The above table is made up from tlie returns actually made to 
the Michigan Fish CJommission, and while probably falling some 
below the actual catch, is undoubtedly the fullest ever yet gath- 
ered. The returns for 1859 were in barrels of 200 pounds, while 
the returns for this year were in pounds, as the fish were sold 
fresh. For the purpose of comparison the number of pounds 
has been reduced to barrels, allowing 20 per cent, for shrinkage 
and offal, which is probably less than the actual loss. The calcu- 
lation is based on 240 i)ounds of fresh fish with entrails only 
removed for 200 pounds of salt fish. 



268 Michigan's semi-centennial. 



SCHEDULE 7. 

The following figures are given in the Michigan Census Report 
for 1874 as the catch for 1873 : 

Bbls. 

Lake Erie and Detroit River. 12,110 

St. Clair Lake and River 1,217 

Sanilac and Huron Co. 's (Huron Peninsula) 1,900 

Saginaw Bay and River 12,370 

Saginaw Bay to Cheboygan 25,170 

Mackinaw 10,114 

East Shore of Lake Michigan 27,052 

Green Bay 9,961 

North Shore of Lake Michigan to Detour 8,834 

Sault Ste. Marie 5,683 

Balance of Lake Superior 258 

114,669 

About 28,000,000 pounds as at present sold fresh, estimating 
200 pounds per barrel and a shrinkage of twenty per cent, between 
salt and fresh fish. 

The amount of capital invested was given at $o34,091, but 
nothing said of number or kind of nets or boats. 

The shipments of fish from Alpena in 1874 were 3,749 pack- 
ages of salt and 1440 tons fresh. A fleet of 200 fish boats was 
engaged in and about the straits, including the Beaver Island 
group. Each boat had from 50 to 10 ) gill nets, and they aver- 
aged about 200 pounds per boat per day. The lake fisheries 
were then declared to be second only to the cod fisheries of the 
Atlantic coast. 

(Vol. 6, Pioneer Reports, p. 188.) 

J. A. Leggett, Mayor of Grand Haven, reported that there 
were in the business at that place in 1875 five tugs and eight sail 
boats. The total product for that year was 1,185,000 lbs. at 4c, 
and 10,000 gallons of oil at 55c per gallon. Number of men 
employed, 114. The product of Saginaw bay and river for the 
same year was 22,000 bbls. (McCracken's Statistics of Michigan, 
pp. 75-6.) 

Prices for salt whitefish for the years named averaged as fol- 
lows at Detroit. 



ADDRKSS OF .lOHN H. I5ISSKLL. 269 

185fi $9 m 1859 $7 44* 1864 $15 :W 

1857 9 86i 18G0 7 9(5 1807 11 00 

1858 7 aU 186- 6 <^5 18G8 14 75 

(From Haddock's Board of Trade Reports.) 

SCHEDULE 8. 
The catch for 1885 actually returned to the Fish Commission, 
bv 432 firms, employing 1,789 men, was as follows : 

•' Lbs. 

Whitetisb 7.455,459 

Trout 4,881,273 

Herring 4,033,13.'> 

Bass =^5'«19 

Other kiuds 4,81o,783 

21,821,469 
Reported, but not classified 1,854,000 

23,675,469 
Approximate catch of fisliermcn not reporting. . 2,706,40() 

26,381,875 
Or 13,190 tons, vahie at 3 cents per lb $791,456 25 

The following nets were in use: 

Reporting. Not Reporting. 
105 



Pound nets l.*^<^4 

Gill nets 24,835 2.800 

59 4 

220 



Seines 

Fykes 

Fathoms. Feet. utiles. 

The gill nets measured 1,588,852 9,533,112 1,8054 

The pound nets measured 177,440 1,064,640 201s 

The seines mea-MU-ed 4,909 oi 

CAPITAL INVESTED. 
This table is the best approximation that can be made, and is 
probably within the actual amount; it is based upon the observa- 
tion of the agent, and not on reports of owners. 

Value of nets * 'i^^'^'I."^^ 

Value of boats '^l.^.'^'^l 

Value of docks and buildmgs 2o6,392 

Value of other apparatus ^^■^^^^' 

$1,133,970 

This includes no lands for fishing coast or grounds. 



270 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

CORRECTIONS AND CHARITIES. 

Hon. LEVI L. BARBOUR. 

The subject of crime and its punishment leads us away back to 
the days of Cain, and so is coeval with the history of mankind ; 
and good Samarilanism also has grown up with the development 
of the human race; but the subject of "Corrections and Chari- 
ties," thus formulated, is of comparatively recent date. 

It is a growth of ideas and systems aiming to counteract the 
growth of pauperism, crime, insanity, and to alleviate suffering 
and ennoble the race. It is the organization of the efforts made 
within the last few years at child-saving, prison-reform, the pro- 
tection and training of the feeble-minded, the supervision of the 
administration of charitable and penal institutions and the cor- 
rection of abuses found in connection with them; and other 
kindred objects. 

While its province is to urge morality, for that tends to due 
observance of the law, it ignores sects and religious doctrines, 
because honest and intelligent men differ so widely respecting 
them ; and, because there are so many zealous and law-abiding 
citizens anxious and striving for the development of the human 
race into a sphere of thought and action higher than that which 
now characterizes it, who would turn their backs upon the work 
were it to be done only upon condition that they should seem to 
subscribe to religious opinions which they cannot honestly hold. 

The material and continued progress of society in correctional 
and charitable matters demands a sympathy of hearts and a union 
of hands — rather than sectarian discussions, which more often 
result in dissensions and discouragement, than in the attainment 
of any desirable object. That these matters must be kept inde- 
pendent of political control or influence, is too evident to any 
broad-thinking man to require more than the statement. They 
must also be treated as purely matters of business, and all senti- 
mentality carefully repressed. 

In order to comprehend fully what has been done by Michigan 
since her admission as a State, with respect to her public chari- 
ties, and what advances she has made in the suppression of vice 
and the restraint and reform of criminals, one must consider her 



ADDKESS OF HON. L. L. BARBOUR. 271 

condition at and before that time as to tlie population, its com- 
ponents and culture and moral status. One who should write of 
the charities and corrections of Mississippi during the last twenty- 
five years, and did not portray the condition of society as atlected 
by the war and the eraancijjation of slaves, would fall far short of 
giving a faithful account of the work done and the results 
achieved. 

It must be borne in mind that there is no distinct and separate field 
of corrections and charities, as there is for the judicial and the 
legislative and executive branches of the government, or the school 
system and the several industries, the advance of which go to 
make up our State's progress and history. What has been done 
in this particular field is largely, if not almost entirely dependent 
upon, or concurrent with the advancements in all the other direc- 
tions indicated. Theiefore, an account (jf what has been done, what 
miscarrieil and what remains to be done, calls for a presentation 
of the prior condition of society and its progress ; the part played 
by the Legislature, in how far it has foreseen and met the chari- 
table and repressive necessities of the State, and wherein it has 
fallen short ; in how far the executive, by messages and a wise 
administration, has advocated and aided progressive measures or 
retarded them ; and wherein the judiciary has by a strict and 
severe enforcement of the criminal laws, taught the people whom 
it protects and serves, that the law of the land must be respected and 
obeyed ; and wherein judges have shown, by fear and by favor, 
that in their eyes a re-election was of more value than the faith- 
ful administration of justice. 

Parkman well describes the early Detroiter at a time when 
Detroit and Mackinaw were all that was settled of Michigan, and 
when nearly all the whites were French. " lie was," he says, 
" usually a happy man, taking life easily, laughing at its hard- 
ships, soon forgetting his sorrows, loving adventure, frolic, danc- 
ing, little troubled with the past or future, and little plagued with 
avarice or ambition. Aloof from the world, the simple colonist 
shared none ot its excitements or tumultuous pleasures, and 
escaped many of its cares. Plenty, and even luxuries were not 
wanting. The long winter was a season of social enjoyment, and 
when, in summer and autumn, the traders, voyageurs aud coureurs 
de />ow gathered from the distant forests of tlie Northwest, the 
whole settlement was alive with dancing and feasting, and often 
with drinking, gaming and carousing." 



372 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

There were uoue of the meekly pious followers of Penn, who 
gave such a staid aud quiet, yet thrifty tone to the early popula- 
tion of Pennsylvania, no Dutch of the class which founded the 
wealth and aristocracy of New York, nor any of the New England 
puritans, with the stern and witch-burning zeal which charac- 
terized the race. 

That elsewhere gorgeous religious creation, the Church of 
Rome, pervaded the wilderness in the persons of the Jesuit fathers, 
not only where was found a son of France, but wherever a being, 
red or white, contained within him a human soul divine. 

The large population of half-breeds assures us that the Indians 
and French got on well together; and, indeed, at Detroit in those 
early days, on a peace footing were three Indian villages, the 
Potawattamies, the Wyandottes and the Ottawas. Judge Burnet, 
who had intimate personal acquaintance with the Indians, re- 
garded them in 1795 as dignified and independent in their rela- 
tions with the whites, and naturally not an inferior race ; and he 
thought that if they were not degraded by the vices and excesses 
of the whites, they would be as capable of improvement as any 
people on the face of the earth. Another author says of them: 
"The Indians were for two hundred years after the first settle- 
ment of Canada, in several places, the only farmers. In Michigan 
their villages were neat, their lands were well laid out and culti- 
vated. They possessed keenness of intellect, wonderful memory, 
and when educated, compared favorably with other nations upon 
an equality." 

The coureur)^ de hois, who were guides and traveling traders, 
were a class from which might naturally be expected the most 
frequent violations of the laws in force which were taken from the 
Goutume de Paris, so far as it seemed applicable to the character 
of the population and the country. They were, however, seldom 
guilty of treachery to the government, malice toward their kind, 
or any of the graver fiendish vice.-* which now so distinctly and 
indelibly mark the criminal class of to-day. Though they were 
far from belonging to the highest tyj)e of humanity, they were 
generally popular for good fellowship and symi)athy for the poor, 
fairly honest in their dealing, except occasionally with the gov- 
ernment, and possessed of a very good reputation for certain 
manly virtues. 

It will strike one at a glance, that during this primitive settle- 



ADDRESS OF HON. I,. L. liAKliOIK. 273 

menl of the coiiutry by this class ot" people, no great ainouut of 
organized public action, either correctional or in the way of char- 
ities, could be expected, or was demanded. There were no great 
necessities and no crying evils. 

The government of the country was in the hands of the mili- 
tary Commandant, until the Governor and Judges were appointed, 
when the territory came under the administration of the United 
States. 

Among the first instances of executive and judicial action, were 
the arrest by Cadillac of some of the Canada company's agents 
for fraud, and liis attempts to prevent disturbances from the exces- 
sive use of brandy, l)y stopping its sale, except in very small 
quantities, for a fair drink, and providing tliat no one should be 
served more than once until all others had been provided who 
desired it. 

De la Gallissouiere was probably the first, and perhaps the 
only Governor to urge upon the home government the introduc- 
tion of paupers. He only desired a few, as needed, and urged 
that other persons of doubtful character, except faux saulniers, 
salt smugglers, should not be sent out unless called for. 

Slavery existed, but very few of the slaves were of African 
descent. They were mostly Indian captives, brought in and sold 
by Indians, and passed from hand to hand like other chattels. 
It continued until the Ordinance of 1787 took effect, by which it 
was abolished, except in so far as property in slaves was protected 
by treaty. In \f*>\i), there were thirty-two slaves enumerated in 
the Territory ; but in 1836, all had died or been freed. Michigan 
has never been disgraced by being a slave State. 

Just when public wliipping began, it is difficult to ascertain ; 
but it continued to disgrace the country until 1881, when, as Judge 
Campbell says, " this relic of barbarism was forever removed." 
He also mentions that the not less barbarous customs of selling 
the poor to the lowest bidder, and tlie disgusting ball-and-ehain 
gang were long continued. 

In 1760 Michigan, with all the other French possessions in 
Canada, came under the English flag; and from that time the 
increase of population by way of immigration was mostly English 
and Scotch. The careful business ways of the Scotchmen and 
the restless enterprise and industry of the English commenced, 
18 



274 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

slowly, but surely, to work a change in the character of the 
country. 

The English Governors, upon taking possession, commenced to 
disregard the French law, which they knew nothing about, and 
substituted the English law so far as they knew anything about 
that, which seems to have been almost nothing at all. They, for 
the most part, evolved a "higher law" from their inner conscious- 
nesses, which was frequently a conscienceless and arbitrary exe- 
cution of their own capricious wills, regardless of justice or public 
policy. A few cases, however, which in the course of events were 
appealed and decided in the English courts against the Governors 
and others in authority, had a very salutary efl'ect in protecting 
the inhabitants and compelling officers to keep within safe 
bounds. 

Justices of the peace committed for trial as early as 1765, but 
do not seem then to have actually tried criminal causes. In 
March, 1777, however, two capital executions took place, result- 
ing from the sentence of a justice of the peace, De Jean, who 
had no more right to pass such a sentence than a Springwells 
justice now has. De Jean, however, had this excuse, that he was 
ordered by Governor Hamilton to conduct the trial. The victims 
of this judicial murder were Jean Contencisiau and xVnna or 
Nancy Wyley. They were charged, the man, with stealing goods 
to the value of four pounds sterling, and the woman, a purse con- 
taining six guineas. The sentence was as follows: "You shall 
be hanged, hanged, hanged and strangled until you be dead, on 
the King's public domain (the Common) the 26th inst. precisely 
at twelve o'clock ; and the Lord have mercy on your souls." 

In 1778, Courts of Common Pleas, having a clerk and sheriff, 
were first established ; but the judges knew nothing of criminal 
law, and banished, whipped, fined or pilloried those convicted be- 
fore them as they chose. Cases of slitting the nose were not in- 
frequent. 

Hanging continued to be the punishment prescribed for murder, 
until 1840 ; but the last execution, that of Simmons, for killing 
his wife, took place at Detroit, September 24th, 1830, — "and 
music was furnished by the military band." 

The misdemeanors most commonly punished were horseraciug, 
bowling and failing to keep water-butts full and buckets in order 
and within reach for use in case of fire. The punishments 



ADDRESS OF HON. J.. L. UAKUOL'R. 275 

iiiliicted sceiu to have been mostly by way of tine, but tliey were 
entirely " insnfKcieut to prevent the festive Frenehnian from rac- 
ing iheir ponies and bowling cannon balls down the narrow streets 
of Detroit." At the time of the surrender of the Northwest Terri- 
tory in 1796 to the United States, there were no white settlements 
within its boundaries of any importance, except Detroit, French- 
town (Monroe), and Mackinac. The white population in laOO 
was about o,000, and in 1810 was nearly 5,000. 

Under the territorial government the trial of capital criminal 
cases was reserved to the yupreme Court, presided over by three 
judges; intermediate cases to the District Court, of which there 
were three, presided over by one of the three judges, and cases of 
minor importance remained to be tried by justices of the peace. 
Presentments were made by grand juries. In 1805, dueling and 
challenging were for the lirst time made ])unishal)le. Punish- 
ments were frequently peculiar, and authorized by no better estab- 
lished precedent than the capricious will of the judge who tried 
the case. In 1806 the Supreme Court sentenced an Indian to be 
branded in the hand, for what crime, I believe, is unknown. 

One marshal was originally provided for the Territory, who 
had the charge of all jails, prisons and prisoners ; subsequently 
these were appointed, one for each district. The marshal was at 
first paid a salary, but by Act 29 of the Territorial Laws of 1805, 
the pernicious fee system, with a per diem for board, which still 
prevails, was established. All services, however, relative to the 
commitment and discharge of a public case, were limited to one 
dollar. From that small beginning has grown the long list of fees 
which now make the office of sheriff' in the large counties a mine 
of wealth to the lucky politician who succeeds in getting it. 

Prisoners in public causes were compelled to maintain them- 
selves, if able; but where they set forth to three justices of the 
peace their inability to do so, the justices might, after investiga- 
tion, give a certificate of the fact, and the marshal in such cases 
maintain them, and was allowed twenty-tive cents a day for each 
prisoner. It is hardly probable that there were originally any 
other places of detention than the guard-houses at Detroit and 
Mackinaw, built of square, hewn, 12x1- hard-wood tiniber, with 
floor and ceiling of the same. The payment of several accounts 
shows that a new jail was built in Detroit in 1802, and after the 
tire ihe Governor and .Fudges in 1806 passed an act, among other 



270 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

things, providing for the erection of a prison or jail at Detroit. 
August 29th, 1805, the Legislative Council passed an act to pre- 
vent rioting, revelling, disorder and drunkenness, by punishing 
the tavern-keeper, or retailer permitting it upon his premises, 
with a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars. 

In 180!) an act was passed requiring that a jail be kept in good 
and sufficient repair by the marshal, under the direction of the 
judge, in each judicial district ; the expense to be defrayed by 
the district. Every person committed to the jail, who had the 
means, was compelled to bear a reasonable charge for conveying 
him there, and pay for his own support until discharged ; and the 
keeper was prohibited from demanding any other or greater fees 
or charges than allowed by law, under penalty of treble dam- 
ages. 

In 1819 a very carefully prepared law was passed by the 
Governor and Judges, regulating prisons, by which the county 
coramissiouers of the respective counties were required to erect 
and keep in repair a good jail. The sheriff was required to keep 
a true and exact calendar of the names of all prisoners, their places 
of abode, additions, time of commitment, cause, description of the 
person by whom committed, and time of discharge, or escape, 
should the latter happen. At the opening of the court it was made 
his duty to return a list of all prisoners in his custody, with the 
facts above required, by him to be kept, and the manner in which 
the prisoners were treated and employed ; and it was made the 
duty of the county court, at the commencement of each term, to 
inspect the jails in their respective counties with reference to secur- 
ity, condition, and accommodation of the prisoners, and to cause 
such measures to be taken as would best tend to secure them from 
escape, sickness or infection. No prisoner was allowed the use of 
spirituous liquors, except on the written order of a physician, and 
the jailer permitting it was guilty of a misdemeanor, and punish- 
able by fine of twenty-five dollars, one month's imprisonment, or 
both. The law provided for separate and solitary confinement, 
bread and water diet, hard labor in the jail, in a yard, or outside 
confined with ball and chain, the sheriff being required to furnish 
necessary tools. Upon a convict's refusal to labor, without a rea- 
sonable excuse, he was to be kept in solitary confinement on bread 
and water. It contained many other important provisions relative 
to the construction and managcMnent of jails ; and was probably 



AnnuKss OK iion. r.. l. isakuour. 277 

taken altogether, the most important of all the laws enacted upon 
the subject. Had it been vigorously lived up to, this State would, 
in all probability, have been in as good condition, and been able 
to make as good showing as is made under the present prison laws 
of England. It has practically been a dead letter ever since it 
was enacted. No jail has been built that complied with its require- 
ments, and therefore it has never been j)ossihle for any sheriff to 
manage a jail as contemplated by this law. The only objection- 
able feature was, that which provided for the working of prisoners 
outside the walls while confined with ball and chain. The (jues- 
tion naturally arises, who is to be charged with the utter disregard 
of such a beneficent provision as this law seems to have been. 
Some reasonable excuse may be found for the proper officers 
while the country was new and attention was directed almost 
entirely to channels of private business, and matters of public 
growth ; but from the time the Territory became a State, no rea- 
sonable excuse can be found for the universal neglect which has 
prevailed throughout the State to pay any attention whatever to 
the subject. The first blame rests upon the officers to whom was 
delegated the duty of providing proper jails, the county commis- 
sioners; and this mantle of blame falls upon the shoulders of their 
successors, the boards of supervisors ; and it has rested with them 
ever since they were first organized. No man who has ever held 
the office of supervisor, can feel himself free from having failed 
in a most important essential to do his duty. 

The laws of the State have always provided that prisoners may 
be sentenced to hard labor in jails, and provided for means for 
such employment through the orders of the Court. Through 
sentimentality, or fear of causing expense to the county, or other 
equally poor reason, have these laws and provisions been utterly 
neglected by Circuit Judges. Idleness, card-playing, Police Ga- 
zette reading, and worse, promiscuous association of all kinds of 
prisoners have resulted. Is it any wonder that with these "schools 
of crime" in full blast, our universities of vice should be full to 
overflowing, and the daily papers able to satiate a putrescent taste 
for the nasty, the wicked and the awful ? 

Another hindrance to reform in jails and jail management, is 
Article X, Section 5 of the Constitution, which provides that 
sherifis shall be incapable of holding the office longer than four 
in any six years. The management of criminals of any class re- 



278 MicniGAx's semi-centennial. 

quires experience. By the time a sheriff has obtained the 
necessary experience to be of value, this unfortunate clause com- 
pels hira to give place to another, generally entirely ignorant of 
all the tricks resorted to by criminals to escape conviction or from 
prison. The section should be repealed, or some means found 
whereby the custodians of our jails may be continued in office 
during efficiency and good behavior. 

The first general act providing for the punishment of crimes, 
was passed December 9th, 1808. Murder and treason were pun- 
ished by death ; rape by fine and imprisonment at hard labor 
during life; robbing and forgery by imprisonment not to exceed 
seven years; and for arson the culprit might be put in the pillory, 
whipped, imprisoned at hard labor for seven years, bound to good 
behavior, fined to the amount of three thousand dollars, or all of 
these punishments, according to the nature of the offense. 

For other offenses imprisonment at hard labor, solitary confine- 
ment, and whipping, such corporal punishment not extending to 
life or limb as the Court or justices might direct, were prescribed. 
Proceeding against any person for conjuration, witchcraft, sorcery 
or enchantment was prohibited ; but any one pretending to use 
skill or knowledge in the occult sciences, could be fined or im- 
prisoned. Blasphemy was punished by fine, or imprisonment not 
exceeding three months at hard labor ; and persons conAMCted of 
bribery were forever disqualified from holding office. 

In 1815 spirituous or fermented liquors were forbidden to be 
sold to minors, apprentices, soldiers or Indians without the written 
order of the master or other proper person designated ; and not at 
all on Sundays, except to travelers and lodgers in taverns. 

In 1820 justices of the peace were charged with the duty of 
causing to be kept all laws for the preservation of peace and 
good order. Poor prisoners were entitled to have counsel assigned 
them in criminal cases. Another act compelled the observance 
of the Sabbath day between twelve o'clock the night preceding 
and the setting of the sun on the same day. It prohibited the 
resort to any {)ublic assembly, except for religious worshij) and 
moral instruction. Public worship was protected, and parents 
and guardians were liable for the fines imposed on children, wards 
or servants convicted of ofTen-ses against the act. Gambling was 
prohibited as " being injurious in a high degree to the persons 
engaged therein, and in its tendencies destructive to the com' 



ADDRESS OK HON. I.. \.. WARHDV H. 279 

munity." Money or property lost could be recovered, and if the 
loser did not commence suit within three months, any otiier per- 
son might recover treble the value from the winner, one-half to 
go to the county. Billiards, raffles and horse races were pro- 
hibited. 

Poor debtors were not to be imprisoned for a debt less than 
five dollars; and when imprisoned and unable to support them- 
selves, the creditor was compelled to give security for their main- 
tenance, to be paid weekly in advance. Women could not be 
imprisoned on mesne process or for debt. And imprisonment for 
debt was abolished when the debtor assigned his property for the 
benefit of his creditor, uidess in case of fraud. Farmer mentions 
in his liistory, that June 24th, 1824, there was not a single person 
in jail or prison in the whole Territory. " When we recollect," 
as he says, "that A[ichigan then included all of Wisconsin, it is 
evident that the officials W(>re very lax or the people remarkably 
law-abiding." Ten years later the same thing occurred again. 
Though the first settlers were far from wealthy, pauptTism was 
unknown among them. None but the sturdy and the plucky 
came into the wilderness. There were times of distress, but no 
time to beg; and no one entertained the opinion that the world 
owed him or his family any better living than he could procure 
for them. 

Beggars came with the increase of population. There was no 
poor officer, before 1790 ; and subsequent appropriations show that 
he had no funds at his disposal. 

The first provision made for the poor, as was very natural, 
was to care for individual cases. October 7, 1805, an 
appropriation, probably not the first, was made, not to exceed 
seventeen dollars, to pay Isaac Day for the support and burial 
of a pauper; and for the general relief of paupers a sum not 
exceeding one huiulred dollars was voted. Soon after an act for 
the general relief of the poor was passed, providing that when- 
ever any person should petition three justices of the peace, stating 
that he was destitute and incapable of labor, the justices, after 
inquiry, should grant the jiauper a certificate approving his 
becoming a pul)lic charge, and the nuirshal of the Territory was 
empowered to contract for his support with the person offering the 
lowest terms, not execcding twenty-five cents per day, but only to 
the extent of tlir umxpcnded appropriation of one liundre'd dol 
lars. 



280 miciiiGxVn's semi-centennial. 

In June 1820 the laws of 1805 and 1817 were repealed. 
County commissioners were given charge of paupers in their 
respective counties ; and when relief was adjudged necessary they 
issued a warrant to the sheriff which directed him to take charge 
of and provide support for the pauper ; and after six days' notifi- 
cation, to receive proposals for the support of the person for the 
ensuing year, and contract upon the most reasonable terms there- 
for. The commissioners were authorized to apprentice poor chil- 
dren during minority having no parents able to support them. 

The State has never pursued a uniform policy in regard to the 
care of its poor. Two systems have prevailed ; one, whereby to 
the townships is relegated the duty of providing for the poor ; and 
by the other they are placed in charge of county officers, each 
county determining for itself which course it will follow. There 
are, however, but few counties which have not abolished the 
township system. The policy of the State in regard to the care 
of its poor, has been liberal, by very many thought too liberal. 
Large county-houses have been constructed, often much larger 
than necessary, and very frequently not carefully planned or 
built. The first requisite, safety from fire, has been constantly 
overlooked ; and all idea of separation and classification 
frequently ignored. There is no record that any inmates have 
suffered from want of proper clothing, and no just complaint has 
been made that they have not been well fed. But in their care, 
two cheap and very essential requisites have been very often 
entirely overlooked, viz.: fresh air and soap. Except in the poor 
houses built or remodeled within the last few years, proper bath- 
ing facilities and sufficient ventilation are unprovided. 

That proper poor-house keepers have not always been provided, 
the following interview with one of them, which I give at length, 
omitting names and places, will sufficiently show : 

I called last evening, and learned that he was keeper of the 
county poor-house for six years, beginning in 1847. He seemed 
to know little about the laws governing the matters of jails and 
prisons or even those governing the poor • but was quite full of his 
own experiences. He said the children of the jwor-house were 
kept with the women and apart from the men ; they were sent 
regularly to school at the district school-house. The insane were 
kept in a house by themselves, locked in cells of which there were 
seven. There were about fifty inmates in the poor-house when he 



ADDKKSS OK llUN. L. L. HAUIJCHK. 281 

took it; he found tliein moping about with uotliing to do. He 
said he went to the superiuteudent and tohl him he must have 
some checkers and cards. The superintendent wanted to know 
what he wantod with them. He told him none of his business, he 
wanted to get them, so he got them, took them to the poor-house 
and gave the paupers something to amuse themselves with, which 
made them, he said, more contented; he often took a hand at 
cards with them himself Able-bodied men worked on the farm. 
He found when he took the house that his predecessor was in the 
habit of locking the inmates in their rooms at night; this he did 
away with. Thinks he was the first man who had paupers vote. 
The Prosecuting Attorney said the laws would not permit it ; but 
he took them to the polls where the votes were challenged, but he 
soon put a stop to that, by saying that they were poor paupers 
deprived of enough without being deprived of voting. He and 
the inspector of election, however, were indicted by the grand 
jury for having allowed such a thing; but his attorney soon con- 
vinced the Prosecuting Attorney that a man did not lose his res- 
idence by being at the poor-house, and the suit was dropped, and 
he laughed and said : "I got in fourteen votes that way, and we 
just carried the election l)y thirteen votes.'' He used to take his 
paupers to the county fair, the managers of which objected at first 
to admitting the " dirty creatures ; " but he told the officers they 
were as clean as they were, and they let hi in bring them ; and he 
never had any trouble after the first time. He thinks very little 
of insane a.sylums, having the utmost confidence in the way he 
used to treat the insane at the poor-house. He told me of one 
man whom, by hanging up by the neck for a while, he cured ; 
another man, by knocking him down with a stick of wood two or 
three times; that, with working them out-doors every day, he 
considered all-sufficient for the permanent cure of this class. 

The State has been frequently been imposed upon by paupers 
shipped into it from the Eastern States, Canada, and even from 
countries across the sea. Michigan is not justly chargeable with 
all the dependents shown by the census to be within her borders, 
and which she is compelled to support. Large numbers of pauper 
children especially, have been shipped in from New York and 
Boston. More careful examinations and prompt measures look- 
ing to the retuni of these foreign paupers by the Superintendents 
of the Poor, would have lessened the number greatly. 



282 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

The amount of unnecessary out-door relief furnished by the 
Supervisors in their indiv^idual capacity, has aided to make the 
State attractive tramping ground for foreign paupers ; and it has 
been too frequently and vehemently charged, not to be, in some 
degree, at least, true, that some of these officers have sometimes 
distributed portions of the public poor funds, not where absolute- 
ly needed by the recipient, but where they would do the officer 
the most good in the next election. It has been claimed, and by 
a great many people implicitly believed, that a poor-master in 
Wayne county kept himself continually in office for many years, 
no matter which party was in the majority, by a skillful manipu- 
lation of the poor funds. It was never suspected that he was 
enabled to retain the position because of the confidence of the 
people in his integrity. 

Since the creation of the office of Superintendents of the Poor, 
there has been a very great improvement in the management of 
poor-houses generally ; and, so far as they have had to do with 
them, in all matters pertaining to the dependent class. 

One of the most useful charitable agencies in the State, is the 
Association of the Superintendents of the Poor, which was inaug- 
urated in December, 1873, at a convention of superintendents, 
where twenty-three counties were represented, and thirty-nine 
superintendents were present. 

The object of the Association is to confer annually together 
respecting all matters which may arise in connection with pau- 
perism and its prevention. The Association includes, also, 
keepers of poor-houses, all officers of State and local charitable 
institutions, and of penal and reformatory institutions, as well. 
All questions respecting the attention required by the poor to pre- 
vent them from becoming paupers, measures to be taken to prevent 
imposition upon (;haritably disposed citizens and public officers, the 
most economical and benevolent treatment of persons, who, from 
accident, misfortune or their own fault, become a burden on the 
public, are carefully studied by the members, and made the sub- 
jects of papers read at the annual conventions. These are printed 
with the discussions which follow, and extensively circulated 
throughout the State. The discussions at these conventions 
assume an eminently practical character and generally result in 
the appointment of a committee to nrgc upon the next Legisla- 
ture the adoption of such charitable and poiial reform measures 
as may have been determined upon. 



ADOKESS OF 1I()\. L. F,. l!AKI!Ol K. 283 

In 1879 such a coraniittoe stroiiffly urued that the liquor tax 1)0 
largely increased, and that the proceeds go to augment the |)()or 
fund of the several counties ; that an industrial school be pro- 
vided for girls ; that the retention of children in poor-houses be 
prohibited; that counties be compelled to provide for the work- 
ing of traraps and other persons of like character, at breaking 
stone, or some similar occupation. And since then, among other 
things, they have repeatedly urged upon the Legislature, but so 
far in vain, the establishment of an institution for training feeble- 
minded children. 

The first of the State corre(!tional institutions, the State Prison, 
was located at Jackson, or Jacksonburg, as it was then called, 
in 1888, The agent of the prison was authorized in 1842 to 
employ convicts at mechanical labor, giving twenty days' notice, 
and lettini^ them to the highest bidders, in the branches of trade 
which it might be found desirable to carry on ; the avails to go 
towards defraying the expenses of the prison. 

The first law relative to the government of the State Prison, 
was passed in 1839, and, with a few exceptions, the general prin- 
ciples of its managenn^iit have remained the same ever since. 
Solitary confinement for life was the sentence generally passed 
upon murderers, but as it was demonstrated that continual soli- 
tary continenient in a cell produced insanity or imbecility, in 1849 
a law was passed authorizing the inspectors to release such from 
the cells and work them as other convicts. Since that time, soli- 
tary confinement has only been resorted to for a few days at a 
time, as an extra punishment for offences committed in the prison. 

The striped dress of the convicts has been changed, corporal 
punishment prohibited, though it is sometimes inflicted ; and 
recently the lock-step has been abandoned, and schools are main- 
tained. The convicts are well fed and comfortably clothed. An 
important clause of the law which provides that the warden shall 
furnish employment to prisoners best suited to their capacities, 
has always remained a dead letter. 

.Vrticle XV^IIT, of Soi'tion 8, of the State Constitution, provides 
tluit no mechanical trade shall hereafter be taught convicts, except 
the manufacture of such articles as are chiefly in)ported from 
other States or countries. And as Michigan manufactures almost 
everything she uses, which it is possible (o manufacture with any 
]>rotit, this unfortunate clause, so far as (Miforced, t'ornis the great- 



284: xMiuiiigan's semi-ckntennial. 

est possible hindrance to the reformation of" criminals; for to 
compel them to learn a good trade is universally recognized as 
one of the first steps toward reformation. With a good trade, 
even, and all the advantages and facilities that can be provided, 
and with a strong will, too, it is exceedingly difficult for any man 
who has once passed through the dark valley of the shadow of 
prison walls to become an upright and self-supporting citizen. 
The self-protection of society demands that every possible exer- 
tion shall be made, during the incarceration of a criminal, to put 
him in such a condition that upon his exit it shall have no fur- 
ther trouble with him ; and when society prevents, by a provision 
of its fundamental law, those who have charge of a criminal from 
teaching him a trade which prepares him to take care of himself 
and family, it commits a blunder. When it prevents the individ- 
ual under its charge from acquiring the ability to live upon an 
equality with his fellow-men it commits a crime against the crimi- 
nal himself 

The original law of 1839 provided for the appointment of the 
agent or warden by the Board, to hold during its pleasure ; and 
with its assent, the warden appointed the under-officers, thus being 
responsible for the general management of the prison. A very 
unfortunate law was passed in 1840, giving the appointment of 
the warden to the Governor. Each Governor appoints a warden 
from among his political henchmen. If there is to be any refor- 
mation of criminals, it is too plain a propositiou to need argu- 
ment, that the warden should hold his office during efficiency and 
good behavior. 

The total number of prisoners received to June 1st, 188G, was 
3,844 ; and the number in prison on that day was 785 ; fifty-one 
of whom are life-convicts. The plant has cost the State about 
$686,000. 

The Slate House of Correction and Reformatory, at Ionia, was 
established in 1877. It was originally designed for male convicts 
sentenced for ninety days or longer, who were between sixteen 
and twenty-five years of age, excepting those sentenced for life. 

Though called a reformatory, there are no reformatory features 
connected with it, diflferent from those existing at the State Prison ; 
and even the distinction of age has, in very many cases, not been 
adhered to. Many judges have become accustomed to send short- 
time men to this prison, regardless of age, the character of the 



ADDICKSS OF HON. I.. I.. l:.\Ki:ot!K. 285 

offense or the number of times the convict has l)efore served sent- 
ence. There is no systematic classification of j)risoners, except 
perhaps during the few hours weekly when they are in the school. 

The cost of the plant is, in round numbers, $365,000 ; 8,153 
inmates have been received, with an average time served by each 
of seven months antl a half. The number of prisoners June 1st 
last, was 482. 

In 1885 a bill was passed for the selection of a site for, and tlu; 
erection of, a "Branch of the State Prison in the Upper Penin- 
sula," and an appropriation of $150,000 was made for that pur- 
pose. A site has been selected near Marcpietlc, ami plans for a 
prison adopted. 

The Detroit House of Correction, though not a State institution, 
from the number and variety in character of its inmates, and its 
many peculiarities of organization and arrangement, ought not to 
be passed by without mention. It is in charge of four inspectors 
nominated by the Mayor of Detroit and confirmed by the Com- 
mon Council, one retiring from office each year. It is subject to 
State inspection. The superintendent is appointed by the board 
for a term of years, and subordinates are appointed by the board 
on his nomination. This makes him the one responsible head of 
the institution, both for its financial management and discipline. 
It has been conducted on the State account plan, materials being 
bought, worked up, and the articles manufactured, sold. The 
superintendents have generally held through several terms, and the 
discipline and management have always l)een considered excel- 
lent. 

An examination of the law of its organization, shows this prison 
to be rather 

Conglomerate in character. 

It is the female prison of the State. 

It has been, and is, in potent ia, a female reforinatory. 

It is a State Prison, exce{)t for murderers. 

It is a United States Prison, or a prison for the confinement of 
United States jjrisoners, and it is a city work-house, and a work- 
house for any county contracting with it. 

In view ol tiie lack of any adequate pri.son system, and to solve 
some of the difheulties caused by loose legislation, and to enable 
the State to enter upon a course of reform in prison methods, 
in accordance with movements the world over, a bill was drafted 



286 Michigan's skmi-oentennial. 

aud placed before the last Legislature, known as the joitit-prison 
bill. It attracted much attention, and its objects and provisions 
received universal approbation among penologists and others in- 
terested in reformatory matters. It provided for the consolida- 
tion of the two State penal institutions under one uon-partisan 
board of coutrol, the members to hold office for six years, two 
retiring biennially. The Board was to have the appointment of 
the wardens who should hold for a term of four years, unless 
within that time removed for cause. It provided for indefinite 
sentences in certain cases, at the discretion of the judge trying 
the case ; for the ticket-of-leave system ; for conveyance of con- 
victs to prison by a prison-officer ; for the employment of prison- 
ers and the disposition of the proceeds of such employment, and 
especially for the employment of young prisoners upon such work 
as would fit them for self-support upon release. The bill passed 
both houses, but unfortunately the Governor vetoed it. It is sin- 
cerely hoped that a similar, but improved, measure embracing 
all the prisons, and not mixed up with the prison labor question, 
will be passed at the next session. 

One of the great difficulties in the treatment of crime, is the 
uncertainty of conviction and the inequality and unjustness of 
jiunishments. Juries will not do their duty in the matter of con- 
viction, and frequently judges are not above criticism in regard 
to sentences, making no discrimination against recidivists, or in 
favor of first-term men. With the ijidefinite sentence, however, 
as the law, the jury has only to find whether the accused com- 
mitted the ofiejisi, a long sentence not staring them in the face, 
for the law fixes the limits of imprisonment, and the prison au- 
thorities determine from all the facts of his previous life and the 
subsequent conduct of the prisoner, when, within those limits, it 
is safe for society and just to him that he shall be permitted again 
at large. Its adoption would be simply an extension of the same 
system which now prevails with so much profit to the State in 
connection with our juvenile reformatories. 

There can be no legal objection applicable to men and women 
who violate the law, which would not apply to those of tender 
years. Indeed the system of allowing a prisoner for "good time" 
earned in prison, is such a modification of the fixed-sentence sys- 
tem, aud has worked so admirably, that it leads logically and 
necessarily to the adoption of indefinite sentence with its accom- 
paniment, the ticket-of-leave, as a modification and restraint. 



ADDRESS OF HON. I.. I.. IJARIiOlk. 287 

di:af and dumb scirooL. 

As the second .State institution coming within the purview of 
this paper, and the first (^haritahle institution oiganized in the 
State, comes the Deaf" and Dumb School. The first board was 
appointed by an act of the J^egishiture of 1848, to organize an 
Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind, and an Asylum 
the Insane. They made their first report in 1850, selecting a site 
for an asylum at Flint for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind 
$3,000 and ten acres of land having been donated by the vil- 
lage. The school was opened in February, 1854, and twelve 
pupils were received during the first school year. The first build- 
ing was completed in 185(5, at a cost of •i'80,500, and occupied that 
year by forty-seven pupils and four teachers. In that year, also, 
a separate board was provided for the Insane Asylum which had 
been located at Kalamazoo. 

The Board of the Deaf and Dumb School consists of three 
members, who hold office for six years, one retiring at the end of 
each two years. Board and tuition are free to all students resi- 
dent in the State. 

Those who have intimate ac(|uaintance with the deaf and dumb 
and the blind, have never thought it wise to provide for them in 
the same establishment, as the methods of education and care 
have nothing in common. The combination of the two schools, 
however, continued till June, 1880, when the blind were provided 
for in a separate school at Lansing. There have been admitted to 
the Deaf and Dumb School 1,0(36 pupils, including 173 blind, 
before the separation. During the thirty-two years of the institu- 
tion, the number of pupils has more than kept pace with the 
growth of the poi)ulati()n of the State. That deaf mutes can be 
educated and made to think ami act like other people, becomes 
every year better known, and every year brings to the institution 
an increased percentage of those designed to be benefitted by it. 
Over four hundred thousand dollars have been invested in the 
school ; its annual expenses are about §50,000, and the present 
attendance of pupils is about three hundred. In standing, it 
ranks among the first of like institutions in the country; and in 
numbers, there are only five in the United States that exceed it. 
The institution aims to be eminently practical in the character 
of its education, licncc it assumes to a great degree, the appear- 



288 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

ance of a manual training school. Quite a large uuinber of 
trades are taught, among others, printing, cabinet-making, car- 
pentering, farming and drafting. Its pupils can be found in 
every part of the country following profitable pursuits and leading 
the lives of intelligent and useful citizens. 

BLIND SCHOOL. 

In 1879, the act was passed for the establishment of a separate 
school for the blind; and the Governor and three commissioners 
were authorized to select a site, erect buildings, and in the mean- 
time put the school in operation. A permanent board of control 
was provided for, organized upon the same plan as the Board of 
the Deaf and Dumb School. The institution is for the instruc- 
tion of blind children of the State between ten and twenty-one 
years of age ; but the Board may admit those older or younger. 
Applicants from other States are received on payment of ten per 
cent, over the actual jjer capita running expenses of the school. 
Pupils are entitled to remain eight years, and even ten, by per- 
mission of the Board. Superintendents of the poor are required 
to send persons entitled to admission who are in charge of the 
county, and clothe them while there. Board and tuition are free 
to others not dependent on the county. In 1880 the commis- 
sioners rented the Odd Fellows' Institute at Lansing, and the 
school opened with thirty-five pupils, 'i'his property was subse- 
quently purchased for ^10,000, and the main buildings greatly 
enlarged, by wings on each side, costing about $37,000 each. 

The total number of pupils in 1881 was 55; 188:^63; 1883, 
70 ; and the same number in 1884 ; and the cost per annum per 
capita is something over $300 ; but I doubt whether those con- 
nected with the school begrudge the State's having been thus 
bountiful in her efforts to provide for the education of the blind. 

DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND. 

Consistency, however, demands that others more unfortunate 
should receive some share of her attention. There is no provis- 
ion for the deaf, dumb and blind. There are quite a number of 
these unfortunates in our county-houses and throughout the State. 
One of the sweetest faces I ever saw was that of a little girl four 
years old, deaf, dumb and blind, in one of our county poor-houses. 
There is sometimes a sunshine more radiant than that which 



ADDRKSS OF HON. L. I,. RAKBOIK. 289 

beams upou us from tlio heavens. The suul of this little child 
pouring itself forth in aglad smile, as some little attention is paid 
her, sends more warmtii to a syinpatliisiii(r heart than the glad- 
dening rays of a vernal sun. And she is beautiful. Great 
"ox-eyed eyes," such as Homer sang of Juno, though they see 
not ; a complexion that would tempt a Fortuny, so transparent 
and delicately tinged was it, and such a mild and gentle soul 
sa<lly feeling its way out to light I That little life, for want of 
attention, must sink into idiocy worse than death. And such as 
she, because they are few and have none to plead their cause, 
have been passed by unheeded in the munificent distribution of 
the bounty of the State. 

FEEBLE-MINDED, 

Several Governors in their messages, have called the attention 
of the Legislature to another class, which probably now number 
two hundred or more, for which no State provision has been made. 
In their annual conventions, for many years, the Superintendents 
of the Poor have urged the Legislature to take some action look- 
ing to the relief of this class; and the State Board of Corrections 
and Charities has reported what was doing in our sister States, 
setting forth the necessity, the injury done, and the dangers in- 
curred by leaving them in the poor-houses untrained, unguarded 
and unprotected; but, as yet, the Legislature has ever been too 
intent on other things to listen to any argument or appeal for an 
institution to train and have the custody of the feeble-minded. It 
is not merely that the welfare of this unfortunate class demands 
this much of us. The welfare of society and practical economy 
recommends it as well. The older States, and younger, too, for 
that matter, have institutions of the kind ; and their experiences 
all show beyond a question, that not only much good can be done, 
that many of this class can be made self-supporting, or nearly so ; 
but that they are much more economically and certainly more 
humanely cared for under the direction of one skilled in the busi- 
ness, than in poor-houses where they are continually the butts of 
ridicule, picked upon, harassed, made ugly, dangerous, and fre- 
quently outraged in a manner not to be named. The Christian 
County of Wayne has furnished two horrible instances of such 
outrages within the last few years. The Board of Charities comes 
upon these sad specimens of humanity occasionally in a eoiKiition 
19 



290 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

and under treatment that makes the heart sick. At a county 
poor-house not long since a girl fourteen years old was kept, in a 
first floor room with slats across the window, perfectly naked. 
Men were constantly passing and could not help seeing her. A 
brother was kept in a pen with no protection from the glaring 
sun of a raid-summer's day. With proper training and treatment 
both might be made quite useful. 

Gov. Bagley, probably as wise and liberal a Governor in mat- 
ters of charity and correction as Michigan has ever had, in his 
message in 1873, said : " I hold to the firm belief that all idiotic 
persons are the wards of the State, and that it should exercise for 
them and over them the same loving care, as far as possible, that 
a wise parent should over his children. The State should do for 
them what humanity demands." Again, he says: "Provision 
should be made for these babes of God. I most sincerely hope it 
may not be long before we will be enabled to empty every poor- 
house of its idiotic inmates. Every consideration of humanity 
and charity urges on the work." 

INSANE ASYLUMS. 

Though provision was made for an insane asylum contempor- 
aneously with the School for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, 
the first asylum at Kalamazoo was not opened till 1859. Before 
that time, the insane were confined in county-houses, jails, strong 
rooms, attics, log-pens and holes dug in the ground ; or they 
wandered uncontrolled, a terror to children and a life-long horror 
to women upon whom they cast an evil eye. No family was safe 
from a visit from them by day or by night. Women half naked, 
followed by crowds of school children, and sometimes by men, 
made the streets hideous with their profanity and vulgarity. 

In 1860 it was found that there were seven hundred insane 
persons who needed asylum treatment; and at that time, the 
asylum could care for only one hundred. The war prevented 
making proper provision then, and it was not until 1870 that the 
building was enlarged to care for three hundred. In 1873 the 
great deficiency was so apparent that another asylum was pro- 
vided for at Pontiac, known as the Eastern Asylum, which, how- 
ever, was not completed and opened until 1S78. During the first 
year it cared for over four hundred patients. When provision 
was made for this asylum, it was expected that it would be sufli- 



ADDliKSS OF HON. L. L. BAKBOTR. 291 

cient for years to come ; but by the time the Poutiac Asylum was 
opened, it was manifest that the State would need at least another 
as large. In 1880 a third asylum was provided for at Traverse 
City, to accommodate live hundred patients; and in 1885 it was 
opened. 

In 1883 an asylum for insane criminals was provided for, or 
partly provided for, which, for want of sufficient foresight on the 
part of the Legislature, and lack of sufficient appropriation, was 
necessarily located adjoining the State House of Correction at 
Tonia, and the soutli yard wall was utilized for a portion of the 
north wall of the building. It was opened for patients in 1885. 

The present capacity of the ^lichigau asylums is as follows: 
Michigan Asylum, at Kalamazoo, 800 ; Eastern Michigan Asy- 
lum, at Pontiac, 700 ; Northern Asylum, at Traverse City, 500 ; 
Asylum for Insane Criminals, at Ionia; 100. Total, 2,100. 

The law governing asylums has not been changed in any 
important particular since Krst enacted in 1859. Whatever 
changes have been made, have bee^i in the direction of securing 
more perfect safeguards to the liberty of the individual, and a 
more careful determination of the question of insanity prior to 
transfer to an institution. To this end the question of insanity 
of all patients has been made by law a judicial matter, it being 
necessary now that the Judge of Probate shall review and approve 
all certificates of insanity of private j)atients. 

In 1878 a law was passed which provided that when any 
patient had been in an asylum for two years at the expense of a 
county, it should become a State patient, and henceforth pro- 
vided for at the expense of the State. One result of this law has 
been to render the counties less careful to protect the public from 
imposition. Quite a number of cases have been found, where 
the county officers undoubtedly received from a well-to-do rela- 
tive the amount paid or to be paid by the county for the two 
years' expenses as county j)atients, for the purpose and with the 
intent of saddling the patient uptm the State and relieving the 
relative of the future expense. 

In this matter, Michigan has done nobly. Her asylums rank 
with any in the United States. The rich, the poor, the recently 
attacked and the chronic patient are now alike all well taken care 
of. No pains or necessary expense has been spared ; and yet 
money has not been wasted. But the self-respecting principle has 



292 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

been adliered to, that if a patient or his friends were able to pay 
the cost of his treatment, they should do so ; if they were unable, 
and the county was compelled to, the patient was entitled to and 
has enjoyed the same treatment and attention as his wealthy 
neighbor. All the asylums have been free from political interfer- 
ence. The boards of control have been non-partisan, and the 
members appointed, with one or two exceptions, solely in conse- 
quence of their fitness to assume the control of large business 
enterprises, or their special knowledge of insanity. The boards 
have all served gratuitously. They have given the State the ben- 
fit of a large business experience, a valuable judgment and disin- 
terested service, which no salary could adequately reward. The 
superintendents are appointed by the respective boards. Those of 
the three large asylums are examples of the working of the civil 
service reform in this State. They all previously served as assist- 
ants in Michigan asylums, and were promoted because none better 
could be found to occupy the positions which they now so ably 
fill. 

Homeopathic and allopathic schools are both represented among 
the superintendents ; but, in fact, that question had probably very 
little, if anything, to do with their selection. 

In no case, I believe, has any officer been appointed by the 
boards with the slightest reference to political views ; and no 
changes have been made in consequence of changes of political 
parties. No suspicion of patronage or jobbery has ever attached 
to the erection of any building, or the purchase of any supplies. 
The State has received full value for every dollar she has paid 
out through the hands of the insane asylum officers. A perma- 
nency and a steady improvement have thus characterized all the 
operations of the asylums, and a stability has been given to their 
management, which is noteworthy when compared with the fre- 
quent changes of policy and administration of asylums in adjoining 
States. 

The character of the buildings is in marked contrast with the 
extravagance displayed in New York and Massachusetts, and with 
the low grade and cheap structures of Canada and the southern 
and western States. They are all substantially built, and furnished 
with the most approved hygienic appliances. The rooms are 
large and airy, corridors neat and cheerful, and the architectural 
arrangements pleasing. Heating and ventilation have received 



ADDKESS i)F HON. [,. L. ISAIiHi )i;r. 293 

careful study, and are of the most approved systems. The admin- 
istration buildings are not extravagant; the kitchen and laundry 
departments seem to be unusually complete and well onlered, and 
the construction has been of such a character that additions to 
any department can be made without inconvenience, and at a much 
reduced per capita cost. 

The beneficial effect of this generous provision for the insane, 
upon humanitarian work generally throughout the State, cannot 
be overestimated. The standard of care inaugurated, the charac- 
ter of the buildings constructed, and the general interest which 
these institutions have awakened for one class of unfortunates, 
have had a great influence upon all other State charitable institu- 
tions. 

The enlightened public sentiment of Michigan, not only in 
reference to the insane, but also in regard to the care of all other 
dependent and afflicted classes, is to be ascribed in a great measure 
to the far-sighted sagacity and broad humanity of the original 
promoters of our first asylum. They deserve great credit tor 
establishing and constructing an institution, which, at the time of 
its erection, was much in advance of the age. The spectacle of a 
poor pioneer State providing for its insane after the most perfect 
methods then attainable, is worthy of highest commendation. No 
less praise should be given to the first medical superintendent 
whose broad-minded and long continued administration developed 
a healthy public sentiment throughout the State and gave prac- 
tical form to the dictates of an enlightened humanity. 

Year by year the standard of care has imi)roved, and to-day 
the methods of treatment in Michigan are equal to those in any 
other State, and far better than in most of the States of the Union. 
Our asylums are practically non-restraint institutions. By care- 
ful management, a healthy sentiment has l)een developed within 
them, which has led to the abolition of mechanical restraint. For 
days and weeks together, not a single patient will be found in 
restraint. It is only used in surgical cases, and where constant 
attention cannot prevent suicide or self-mutilation. Larger liber- 
ty is given the patients ; many are alloweil to come and go upon 
parole, others occupy rooms in open door halls, and are permitted 
the liberty of the grounds, and as they show signs of recovery are 
permitted to go away on trial; and every efii)rt is made to dimin- 
ish the restrictions incident to asvlum life. A large amount of 



294 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

liberty is given patients not allowed to go on parole or in open 
door halls, by daily open-air exercise, not in airing courts, but 
upon the farm and in the groves surrounding the asylum. Sup- 
plementary to non-restraint, and as an important factor of asylum 
treatment, industrial pursuits are encouraged in every way possi- 
ble. Male patients are systematically employed in all sorts of 
work, in the care of cattle, shoveling coal, cutting wood, wheeling 
earth, making mattresses, seating chairs, binding books, printing, 
etc., etc. The women are employed in knitting, sewing, manu- 
facture of all sorts of clothing, laundry, kitchen, growing flowers. 
Amusements are by no means neglected ; social gatherings, cards, 
concerts, lectures, dances, reading, choir practice, croquet, lawn- 
tennis, base ball, and other games are regularly enjoyed by the 
patients. 

By an act of 1877 the boards of the several asylums are re- 
quired to meet twice a year in joint session, to consider matters of 
common interest and devise methods for the benefit of the insane 
of the State. The frequent interchange of views among the mem- 
bers of the boards, serves to keep the asylums in harmonious re- 
lations, and yet there has been a warm emulation in devising 
ways and means of adding to the efficiency of each asylum. At 
these joint meetings the superintendents have taken an active 
part, preparing and reading papers on the various means employed 
by each in dealing with difficulties, and suggesting changes and 
improvement. 

STATE REFORM SCHOOL. 

The Reform School, located at Lansing, seems to have first 
come before the public in an official way througli the valedictory 
message of Gov. Parsons in 1855. Gov. Bingham, in his inau- 
gural message the same year, also urged the establishment of a 
House of Refuge for boys, that they might be separated from the 
hardened offenders in jails and prisons. The Legislature that 
year provided for such an establishment to be located at Lansing, 
upon condition that not less than twenty acres should be donated 
for that purpose. Thirty acres were given, and subsequently the 
State purchased one hundred and ninety-five acres more. The 
institution was opened September 2, 1856. The name was changed 
in 18)9 to the State Reform School. Originally the inaiiagenient 
was vested in a board of six commissioners, two api)i)int('(l by the 
Governor and contirnied bv tiie Senate everv two years. In 1857, 



ADDRESS OF HON. L. L. UAIiUoi'K. 295 

however, a change was made to a board of control of three mem- 
bers. At first the institution consisted of one main buihling with 
bars, locks, grated doors and high fences. These latter have all 
now been removed, and additions to the buildings have been made 
by cottages accommodating fifty boys each. Eacli cottage is pre- 
sided over by a man and his wife, who act in the capacity of 
teachers and have general charge. The instruction is confined to 
the common English branches. A chapel has been erected upon 
the grounds, which is used not only for religious services, but for 
such other general purposes of a.ssembly as may be found profit- 
able. Sunday school is conducted in the morning. It is a very 
good feature of the management, that frequently half the boys of 
the school attend service in the different churches of the town, 
under charge of one of their own number. 

The law provides that the board of control may, in its judg- 
ment, place in families, or indenture as ap|)rentices, any boys suffi- 
ciently reformed, or return them to their parents, requiring, if 
they deem it necessary, security for their care and future good 
behavior. The limit of age. for sending boys to the school, is 
from ten to sixteen, and all boys, except for truancy, are sent 
until eighteen years of age, unless sooner discharged by the 
board. The boys rise at o^JO in the morning in the summer, and 
at six in the winter, and retire at eight o'clock. Each boy, unless 
ill, is required to work four to five hours each day, attend school 
four to five hours, and about three hours are devoted to recrea- 
tion. A large play-ground is provided, and balls, bats, marbles 
and other things for their amusement, so that a boy finds the life 
which he leads at the school fully as pleasant and made more 
profitable than his previous comlition as a young marauder and 
vagrant. A boy, who, by uniform good conduct, gives evidence 
of reformation, generally is, and always ought to be discharged 
before he attains his eighteenth year, if he has a good home, or 
one can be found for him, by a county agent. 

Incorrigible boys, upon whom reformatory influences have 
failed, and whose presence at the school is deemed prejudicial to 
its discipline, are returned to the court issuing the commitment, 
for such disposition as it shall deem proper. If the school were 
not so large, more personal attention could be given to each 
individual under its care, and greater success might naturally be 
expected ; but it i> too much to expect that any superintendent 



296 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

can have a personal knowledge or charge of 500 boys and accom- 
plish the same results as with half the number. There is some 
variety in the occupations which a boy can choose from, as his 
tastes incline him ; but the opportunity for choice might be 
enlarged with profit. Many a boy is totally unfit to be a farmer, 
tailor, shoemaker, baker or engineer. His nervous organization 
and inclinations are such that he cannot be kept and cannot keep 
himself to any of these avocations. He will be a total failure if 
confined to any one of them, while he might make a good printer, 
a skillful draughtsman, or a rapid and accurate stenographer or 
telegrapher. Not that one of these trades is above another; but, 
simply, that the individual is fitted for one, and it is to his taste, 
and not so another. 

STATE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 

The State Public School for dependent and neglected children 
is the natural outgrowth of the civilization in which we live, and 
of the charitable and economical studies and the theories of the 
philanthropists of the last twenty-five years. 

In the same line, it is a long step beyond the poor-house, the 
reform school and the prison. It is the ounce of prevention which 
I'enders unnecessary the pound of cure, which does not always 
cure. The great wonder is, that Michigan alone, of all the States, 
has such a school. The practical public men of the State, with- 
out foreseeing, perhaps, what would result, did certainly foresee 
the necessity for a full and careful examination of the institutions 
of the State having any connection with the suppression of pauper- 
ism and crime. The first official action in this direction appears 
to have been taken by Gov. Baldwin. Before assuming the duties 
of his office, he visited several State institutions, jails and poor- 
houses, and plainly saw, not only the necessity for improvements, 
but for radical changes. This led him, in his inaugural message, 
to recommend the apj)oiutment of a commission to make a more 
careful examination of these matters than his time and opportun- 
ities would afford him. In accordance therewith, by joint resolution 
he was authorized to appoint such a commission. He appointed 
one, and after a very careful and extensive (,'xamination, it made 
an able and exhaustive report to the Legislature of 1871, among 
other things, calling special attention to the lamentable condition 
of dependent children in and out of poor-houses, and asking the 



ADDRESS OF HON. L. L. BAKBUUR. 297 

Legislature to take some action for their relief. The commission 
recommemied that the State assume control of its dependent chil- 
dren, provide for and educate them, and among other things, for 
that purpose recommended the establisliment of a State Primary 
Scliool. The facts and arguments which they set forth were the 
moving cause of an act passed at that session, to carry out their 
recommendation. 

It provided for three commissioners to he aj)pointed hy the 
Governor, to select a site and erect a building. Thirty thousand 
dollars were appropriated for the purpose, and the commissioners 
were given charge of the school after its completion until the end 
of the next succeeding session of the Legislature. The school 
was located at Coldwater, the citizens of that place donating the 
site and t'io.OOO for the purpose. Further appropriations were 
made in 1873, and the buildings were completed in 1874. By the 
Legislature of 187") its capacity was increased to accommodate 
250 children. It was organized upon the congregate and cottage 
jilan combined ; a large main building, with wings, providing a 
residence for the Superintendent, offices, dormitories for teachers, 
and school rooms, and a chapel, and dijiing-room, kitchen, etc., in 
a rear |)rojection. In the rear of this building, and extending 
both sides of it, are ten cottages, entirely disconnected, accommo- 
dating about thirty children each, and each under the charge of a 
matron. 

There is nothing about the institution which would recall the 
squalor and untidiness, or the listless vagrant life of poor-house 
children. In dress, behavior and general appearance, these little 
ones compari' well with district school children throughout the 
State. Children over two and under twelve years of age, sound 
in body and mind, are sent by superintendents of the poor upon 
the order of the judge of probate. The act provided for teach- 
ing the branches usually taught in common schools, and for 
proper moral and physical training, and ileclared the object to 
be, to providi' such children only a temj)orary home, until one 
coidd be procured for them in a good family ; and the act made it 
the duly of the board, so far as [)i)ssible, to procure homes for all 
such pupils as had received a piiinary education. 

No more l)eneficent measure has been enacte<l by the Legisla- 
ture of any State. No measure has had a greater tendency to 
cut oH' the tap-root of crime and pauperism, not because of its 



298 Michigan's semi-centknnial. 

enactment simply, but because it has been properly carried out. 
No feature of it has been a dead letter. The records of the school 
show the work honestly and faithfully pursued from the day of 
its commencement, and the number of children cared for and 
placed in homes, shows the accomplishment of a work second to 
none other in the State. The share in this noble work taken by 
the county agents of the State Board of Corrections and Charities, 
not only in providing homes for children directly, without send- 
ing them to the State Public School, but also in securing homes 
for the children from the school, and continually watching over 
the care and treatment of the little ones that they should suffer 
no harm from neglect or cruelty, has been such an important 
element of success in this great charity, that it should ever be in 
mind when the subject is mentioned. In fact, a great share of 
this success is owing to the hearty co-operation of the officers of 
the school and the county agents. The agents have the advantage 
of personally and continually knowing the families in which the 
children are placed, and all their surroundings. The first rumor 
of neglect or ill-treatment is wafted to their ears, and they find a 
ready way to investigate all charges, and effect reconciliations, 
where proper, between the children and families with whom they 
are. Two thousand children have been received at the school ; 
over fourteen hundred placed in homes, and the plant has cost the 
State about $150,000. The school is neither penal nor reforma- 
tory, and no inore taint attaches to any child because of its hav- 
ing passed through it, than through any other State institution, 
such as the Normal School, the Agricultural College or the Uni- 
versity. They are all established for the purpose of aiding those 
who resort to them to become good and well-educated citizens ; 
and it is not expected that any one who resorts to anyone of them 
will return an equivalent for what he receives. 

(ilRLs' INDUSTRIAI. HOME. 

In 1879 the Legislature passed an act establishing a reform 
school for girls, and appropriating .SoO,000 for purchasing 
grounds, erecting suitable buildings, and to pay current expenses. 
It provided for a board of control of four women, subsequently 
changed to three, and two men, to he ap})ointed in the usual man- 
ner, authorized to select a site containing not less than twenty- 
five acres, adopt a plan, erect buildings for the confinement and 



ADDRKSS OF UOS. ].. L. BAKHOTR. 299 

discipline of girls between the ages of seven and seventeen until 
twenty-one years of age, except truants are sent until sixteen. It 
provided that the school should be conducted on the family or 
cottage plan ; and that the girls sliouhl be taught donnestic indus- 
tries and given a thorough education in all branches of household 
work. Sentences by police or justice court were required to be 
approved by the Circuit or Probate Court of the county, and the 
approval endorsed on the commitment. The Board was author- 
ized to liberate girls reformed, or indenture them to suitable )>er- 
sons, and authority was granted to return any incorrigible girls 
to the court, for other sentence. The institution was opened 
August Ist, 1881 ; eighty-five girls were received during the first 
fiscal year; and the year following, one hundred and forty-three 
had been received. Up to June 1st of this year, tliree hundred 
and four girls have been received ; fifty-three placed out on ticket- 
of-leave ; twelve returned as unfit subjects; thirty-four discharged 
for various reasons, of whom twenty-two were for good behavior, 
and four have died ; leaving one hundred and seventy-nine in 
the Home. There are five grades, and the girls are graded 
in the several cottages according to their condition, and 
the improvement which they make. In 1883 the name 
of the institution was changed to the State Industrial 
Home for Girls, and an appropriation of -^65,000 was made for 
current expenses for two years, and §13,000 to purchase an addi- 
tional forty acres and for other purposes ; 823,000 was appropri- 
ated for another cottage, which the Legislature unfortunately 
provided should be double the capacity of those previously built. 

Thirty girls, such as are usually sent to an institution of this 
nature, are all that any matron can properly care for Unfortun- 
ately, too, the cottage was located between others, and sufficient 
room for the spread of the wings was lacking, so that it was forced 
to assume the shape of a \'. The proximity of this central cottage 
to the others adjacent renders it easy, and a matter of daily oc- 
currence, for the inmates to communicate with those in the adjoin- 
ing buildings. 

The aim of the iustitulion is, to niakt- domestic women, prudent 
of speech and conduct, cleanly, industrious and capable, so that 
they may become eventually good wives and good mothers. To 
treat them as criminals any more than is absolutelv necessary to 
restrain them, would be to coinmit an egregious ern>r. Many of 



300 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

them have never known what it was to have a clean abiding- 
place, or to hear clean language ; and the improvement of the 
girls in manners, conduct and appearance after they have been in 
this institution a short time is generally to be seen at a glance. It 
is not expected that all girls sent to such an institution will be 
saved (whatever that may mean); and it ought not to be expected 
that an institution such as this will at once attain perfection in all 
its methods ; but, so far, such a large proportion of the girls who 
have been released, or placed in homes, have shown themselves so 
worthy of the trust placed in them, that the Board and officers 
have every reason to congratulate themselves upon the success of 
iheir efforts, and the people of the State to be thankful that so 
important an institution is in worthy hands. 

It is true, however, that there are some girls in the Home, and 
there have been since the opening, who have no business in such 
a public institution. They are the unfortunate victims of unkind 
relatives or others who seek to be rid of them, and use a justice of 
the peace as the unworthy means of accomplishing their purpose. 
Some of the o'ertrue tales which are told by these girls of their 
treatment before arrest, and the farcical trial gone through with to 
convict them, would bring a blush upon the face of fair justice, if 
she were aware, how, in her name, such proceedings were con- 
ducted. 

THE STATE BOAKD OF CORRECTIONS AND CHARITIES. 

The State Board of Corrections and Charities was first oi-ganized 
in 1871, under the name of the Board of State Commissioners for the 
general supervision of charitable, penal, pauper and reformatory 
institutions. It is the continuation of Gov. Baldwin's Commission 
to examine the penal and charitable institutions of the State. It was 
made, among other things, the duty of the Board at least once a 
year to visit and thoroughly examine the prisons, asylums and 
reformatories of the State, and the jails and poor-houses of the 
several counties. As a board, it has never had any executive 
power or authority. It was not created to manage, but to advise 
and supervise. It has never had any power or desire to control 
the management of any State or county institution, but through 
investigations, comparisons and suggestions, to effect more uniform, 
economical and improved methods for the treatment of those, who 
through crime, poverty or misfortune, have become partly or wholly. 



ADDRKSS OF HON. L. T.. IJAUlJorii. 301 

a public charge, or arc likely to. Perlia|w the ino.st iini)ortant of 
its duties relates to inspection. Thorough, careful and frequent 
inspection, by disinterested persons of common sense, always serves 
to reveal sufficient facts to prevent abuses in public institutions. 
When the door clo.ses upon the iiiiuate.>< of any public establish- 
ment and they are secludetl frdui the public view tluy are liable 
to suffer neglect or abuse from the almost absolute power possessed 
by the officials. Visits when unexj)ected, and careful oversight, 
not only tend to prevent abuses, but inspire public confidence in 
their non-existence. This oversight tends to relieve the officials 
from suspicious, and frequently materially aids them in making 
changes and reforms which without advice, aid and support, they 
would be made unable to effect. Frequently preconceived opinions 
of other officials, newly elected, inexperienced, knowing nothing of 
the matter in question, are to be overcome; there are personal 
interests to be set aside ; deraogoguery to be withstood, and political 
wire-j)ulling to be exposed. Though these things are not specially 
nominated in the act creating the .Board or defining its duties, 
they frequently are to be met, and to meet them is generally suf- 
ficient to overcome them ; except in the Legislature and sometimes 
with the judiciary. They, being each in these things, as it were, 
a law unto themselves, sometimes conduct matters as they please, 
regardless of argument or law. This is only exceptionally the 
case. Generally, judges whose attention has been called to abuses 
or desirable reforms, have heartily co-operated; and the same 
may be said of legislators when they have devoted the time necessary 
to a full understanding of a subject presented to them. The 
Board is one rather of measures than of matters, of theories that 
have been proved i)ractical, ratlu r than of ])ractices that have 
only precedents tor their basis, regardless of changes that render 
them useless or obstructive. Every pathmaster knows that fre- 
quent alteration is necessary to kt'cp the highways free from ruts; 
and it is no less true of the ways which lead from the people to 
institutions ; through institutions and back again to the people. 
It is necessary to keep them traversable that they should be fre- 
quently inspected, and obstacles and ruts, when found, removed. 

The Board acts also as a means of communicating information 
between institutions of different character, — recommending what 
it finds new and good and healthi'ul ; and advising how to avoid 
what has been found elsewhere objectionable. For example, iu 



302 Michigan's semi-centknnial. 

building, to avoid courts and places unexposed to the sun, as 
breeding disease; proximity of cottages, as interfering with dis- 
cipline ; elaborate designs as a waste of the people's money ; an 
extension of the plan of placing children, not too bad, in fami- 
lies, as a good fiimily under ordinary circumstances is the best 
home and reformatory that can be provided for our dependent 
and delinquent youth ; bath-rooms and work-yards in connection 
with jails, as cleanliness and industry are the two things which a 
tramp or vagrant hates worse than the devil hates holy water. 
Sometimes amusing incidents occur in connection with the inspec- 
tion of county buildings. The visitor is detained until those who 
are half clad, without shoes or uncombed, are put in order ; but 
any little attempt of this description at deception, is at once per- 
ceived, and generally casually noticed in a pleasant manner that 
prevents its repetition. If a house is dirty, it cannot be cleaned 
in a few moments. If the inmates are squalid, unkempt or ill-fed, 
their appeai'ance will indicate these facts to a connoisseur at 
once, and unequivocally ; and, on the other hand, if general order 
prevails, and cleanliness and industry are the rule, they will show, 
and any little irregularity is excused, for accidents will happen 
everywhere, and are more likely to, in the handling of people of 
irregular habits and undisciplined lives, than elsewhere. 

In the inspection of State institutions there lias very seldom 
been occasion to complain of the care and treatment of inmates, 
or of lack of cleanliness. They may generally be said to be 
models of neatness which many a housewife would do well to 
copy. They are not all, however, well ventilated or provided with 
proper bathing facilities. This is more especially true of prisons. 

The law provides that the members of the Board shall receive 
no compensation for their time or services. No member can be 
interested in any contract with respect to any State institution, 
poor-house or jail ; nor, so far as I am able to learn, are there any 
emoluments or perquisites, except those Addison mentions, when 
he says, " to an honest mind the best perquisites of a place are the 
advantages it gives a man of doing good." Of these, there are 
many ; and with these the Board is content. The actual travel- 
ing and otHcial expenses of the members — when audited by the 
Governor, or the State Board of Auditors — are paid. The Board 
is required by the 1st of October, prior to the sitting of the Leg- 
islature, to make a written report to the Governor of the result 



ADDKKSS OV !I()i\. L. I.. MAKUoI M. 3<>8 

of tlioir investigations, together with such int'onnation and recom- 
mendations as they may deem proper, inchiding their opinions as 
to the necessity of further legislation to improve the condition 
and extend tlie usefulness of the various State, county and other 
institutions visited. When any special investigations into alleged 
abuses in any institution are thought necessary, or of -any charit- 
able or penal institution outside the State, the Governor is author- 
ized to direct the Board, or one of its members, to examine into 
the matter, and report. 

The Governor is ex-ojficio a member of the Board. It is pro- 
vided by Act 20(J, Laws of 1881, that the boards of State charit- 
able, penal and reformatory institutions, before determining 
amounts to be recommended for ap[)ropriatiou by the Legislature, 
needed for the ordinary current expenses for the next two years, 
and for special purposes, shall submit them to the Board of Cor- 
rections and Charities for its opinion thereon ; and the Board is 
required to examine, and report to such boards respectively; also, 
that when any institution shall determine upon the plan of any 
building for school purposes, living, work or sleeping-rooms for 
inmates, or any system of ventilation, heating or sewerage, author- 
ized by the Legislature to be constructed, such ])lan shall be sub- 
mitted to the Board for examination and its opinion thereon, and 
that the next report of the institutional board shall show to what 
extent such opinions were concurred in. 

COUNTY AGENTS. 

In 1873 it Ijecame evident from authentic reports made to the 
Governor, that there were nearly or quite one thousand children 
in the iii>titutuiiis controlled by the State, or some department, 
held as objects of j)ublic charity, or oflenders under restraint ; and 
that the number was increasing. It was also ascertained that 
some children were committed to the Reform School or to places 
of punishment, for trivial causes without much investigation; and 
more to be rid of them than for any criminal conduct on the part 
of the children. This state of facts, together with a purpose to 
secure if possible combineil and systematic efforts to put children 
out into reputable families, and to maintain over them during 
tender years a supervision that should protect them from abuse, 
led the Legislature in that year to establish a State agency for the 
care of juvenile offenders, and authorized theGoveruor to appoint 



304: Michigan's skmi-centennial. 

each county an agent of the Board of Charities to hold office 
at the pleasure of the Governor, which precedent has been con- 
strued to mean during efficiency and good behavior. Notice of 
such appointmeut is given to the County Clerk, and to all judges 
and justices of the peace. No compensation was at first provided 
for agents, their actual expenses only being repaid. By subse- 
quent enactment, they are paid three dollars for each case, but 
not to exceed one hundred dollars for expenses and services in 
each county, excepting Wayne and Kent, where two hundred 
dollars may be expended. 

When complaint is made against any child under sixteen, for 
any oflTense not punishable with imprisonment for life, the court 
or magistrate having jurisdiction, before proceeding to hear the 
case, is required to give notice in writing to the county agent, and 
allow him opportunity to investigate the charge. It is made 
the agent's duty immediately to make a full examination of the 
parentage and surroundings of the child, with all the facts and 
circumstances of the case, and report to the court, whom then the 
law requires to counsel and advise with him respecting what 
course the interests of the child and the public demand with 
respect to its disposition. Thereupon, if a proper case, the court 
may, with the advice and approval of the Judge of Probate, au- 
thorize the agent to bind out the child to some suitable person, or 
should it appear willful and unmanageable, cause it to be sent to 
one of the Reform Schools, or House of Correction, subject to 
such condition of sex and age as the law provides. 

It is also made the duty of the agent to visit, at least yearly, 
all children indentured or placed in charge of any person by the 
board of any State institution, inquire into the management, con- 
dition and treatment of such children, and for that pur])ose, have 
private interviews with them, and report to the State Board of 
Charities and to the institution indenturing them. And should it 
at any time come to the ears of an agent that any such child is 
abused or neglected, or that the person is unfit to have the man- 
agement of such child, he must report the fact to the institution, 
whereupon the contract is cancelled and the child returned, or 
indentured to some other person. Before any children can be 
indentured, adopted or taken from any institution, a report from 
the agent respecting the suitability of the place must be made, 
and the law required all applications for release or discharge of 



ADORKSS OF UoX. I,. [,. iJAKliolK. 305 

such adopted or indentured children to be given to the agent for 
his report. It is made the especial duty of such agents to seek 
suitable persons who are willing to adopt chilclren arrested, or 
connnitted to any State institution, or who have been abandoned 
or neglected. It is the duty of the superintendent of any reform 
school forthwith to notify the agent of the county upon the dis- 
charge of any child, and the agent, so far as possible, assists in 
procuring hint employment and a home free from immoral influ- 
ences. The agent is also required to keep a careful history of 
each case. By the law of 1885 the report of the agent to the 
court is required to be attached to the mittimus when any child 
is sent to a reformatory, and the agents are required to make 
special reports of their doings to the superintendents of State 
institutions when recpiested by their superintendents, and to the 
State Board of Charities. 

In I880, also, the county agents together with tlu' superintend- 
ents of the poor and the Judge of Probate, were made a local 
board of jail inspectors, to report twice a year to the Circuit 
Court and the Board of Charities, the condition of the jail and 
lockups in each county. The spring inspection was very gener- 
ally conscientiously performed, sharp criticism of the condition of 
very many jails made, and from the newspapers it seems evident 
that many changes for the better resulting from these inspections 
and reports will be made. 

In 1882 the Board of Corrections antl Charities called the 
county agents together in convention at Jackson. An address 
vf-as delivered by the President of the Board, [)apers of great inter- 
est were prepared and read by a number of the agents and others ; 
and a general discussion followed each paper. Some of the sub- 
jects will indicate the matters considered, as, " Dealing with 
Accused and Indigent Children," " Putting Children into Homes," 
" Visiting Indentured Children," " Rights and Duties of the State 
towards Children Morally Exposed by their Surroundings." A 
general conference of agents followed, after the manner of conven- 
tions of Superintendents of the Poor. Since then, annually, such 
a convention has been held in different parts of the State, and the 
proceedings published by the Board of Charities and the publica- 
tion distributed where it would do the most good. At the last 
annual meeting, the agents elected oflBcers and became a perma- 



306 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

nent organizatiou, and the same beneficial results may be expected 
as from the organization of the Superintendents of the Poor. 

BOARD OF PARDONS. 

The Advisory Board in the Matter of Pardons was created by 
an act of the last Legislature, by which the Governor was author- 
ized, with the assent of the Senate, to appoint four citizens of the 
State members of the lioard (two from each of the dominant 
political parties), two for two years and two for four years, whose 
duty it should be to investigate and consider all applications for 
pardons or commutations of sentence made by prisoners confined 
at Jackson and the two houses of correction, at Ionia and Detroit. 

The Board organized for business July, 1885. All petitions 
sent to the Governor, and those on hand at the time the Board 
was organized, have been referred to it ; besides many petitions 
made to the Board directly. It is the custom of the Board to 
investigate cases as thoroughly as possible, ascertaining all the 
facts and circumstances relative to the crime, the trial, and the 
previous history of the convict. In these investigations the Board 
visits the prison and has personal interviews with the convicts 
who have complied with the rules of the Board in their applica- 
tions. In considering cases, the Board does not give weight to 
the complaint that on the testimony the prisoner ought not to 
have been convicted, unless the case shows a very flagrant viola- 
tion of justice, as one or two have. In other words, the Board 
does not assume to review the action of the jury. It has been the 
aim of the Board, in exercising its functions, to treat with great 
care the cases of young men, or men in for their first offense, 
especially with a view of giving such convicts a chance to reform. 
The system adopted in this class of cases is, when deemed worthy, 
to put them out on probation, after the manner of ticket-of-leave 
men. The Board has made a number of recommendations upon 
this basis, which have been acted upon by the Governor, and have 
proved so far very successful. In only one case has there been a 
failure, and in that case, immediately upon the breach of the con- 
dition corning to the knowledge of the Board, it caused proceed- 
insrs to be instituted against the convict. He was tried for the 
breach of his parole, convicted and returned to the prison at 
Jackson to serve the balance of liis original sentence. The Board 
has, in its investigations, discovered that there is among the pris- 



ADDRESS OF HON. L. L. BAKBOUR. 307 

oners a feeliug that injustice is frequently done them in the great 
inequality of sentences for like offenses. The Board has found 
cases of convicts sentenced to the State Prison for rape, all the 
way from five years to life ; and the worst cases have freciueutly 
received the shortest sentences. It has found this inequality of 
sentences running all through the prison, and this feeling of injus- 
tice is the cause of much dissatisfaction among tlie men, — that a 
wrong has been perpetrated upon them and that they feel justified 
in taking any course to get even. This is very natural and ought 
to be expected ; but it docs away with all the good results which 
might be hoped from punishment. When the prisoner is turned 
loose again u|n)n society at the end of a fixed term, with this 
embittered feeliug raukling in his breast, he becomes ten times the 
ciiild of hell he was when society attempted to check his career 
in crime. The Board sees, also, plainly that a result of confining 
a young man who has committed his first offense with hardened 
offenders who have led alternately a life of crime and of punish- 
ment, is, that he loses all self-respect, and that the unvarying 
tendency is to make him a criminal for life. The Board is of the 
opinion that when a man has become an habitual criminal, he 
should be retained within the prison for life ; but care should be 
taken that he should not be convicted of a second offense simply 
because convicted of a first offense. Such things do happen too 
frequently. 

From these statements, it will be concluded that the Board is 
strongly in favor of the introduction in prison management of the 
ticket-of-leave, and of the indeterminate or indefinite sentence, as 
now generally understood ; that is, upon conviction, sentence is 
passed for the time prescribed for that character of ofl'ense by the 
statute, leaving it to be determined whether the prisoner shall 
serve the maximum or minimum, not l)y the judge who tries the 
case, and only knows what of the history of the accused can be 
gleaned while he is on trial ; but from the conduct of the pris- 
oner while in the prison by the officers in whose care he is placed 
whon tliey have learned his previous history and surroundings, 
and have studied his character wliile daily under their eyes or 
supervision. 

The Board also favors suspension of sentences in cases of first 
offense, and that the culprit be placed under police surveillance 
for a period of time. 



308 Michigan's semi-centknnial. 



NATIONAL PRISON RKFoRM ASSOCIATION. 

At the National Conference of Charities at Washington in June, 
1885, through' the influence of the Superintendent of the Detroit 
House of Correction and the members of the Board ol Charities 
present, the National Prison Association was induced to hold its 
annual meeting at Detroit in October. Attended by many men 
from different States and Canada, for many years experienced in 
the actual management of prisons, and by many others for years 
and years known and honored for their zealous labors in prison- 
work and reform, this meeting excited much interest. However 
much some who were unfamiliar with the ideas advanced by the 
most prominent speakers were inclined to criticise and condemn, or 
to deride other results, it cannot be denied that much interest and 
thought was aroused throughout the State, and a desire created 
for the progress of the work, which will be felt for a long time. 

The opening meeting, held on Saturday evening is said to have 
been the largest ever known in the world on the subject of prison 
reform. 

Non-partisan government of prisons, the appointment of prison 
officers solely for competency, and their retention during good 
behavior, the classification and grading of criminals, separ- 
ating the old in crime from young offenders, the nature and 
extent of punishment in prisons, the kinds of labor enabling a 
prisoner to gain an honest livelihood when discharged, the dis- 
position and oversight of discharged prisoners, the indeterminate 
sentence, the control and management of jails by the State and 
not by counties, the advantages of non-intercourse between pris- 
oners in jails, and the necessity of matrons in station-houses and 
jails, were some of the topics ably discussed by men whose repu- 
tation is continental and even world-wide. 

The wonderful effects of the changes lately made in England, 
as shown by some of the papers, illustrated and enforced the prin- 
ciples and views earnestly advocated by the State Board of Cor- 
rections (luring the last four years. 

The education of the people in these things was begun, and 
when they are brought to understand the nature and the extent 
of the evils existing in connection with them, reform will come, 
and these evils will cease. 



ADDKKSS OK .I.VMKS W. BARlLKir. 3(>9 



THE PROGRESS OF THE .MECHANIC ARTS IN THE 
LAST FIFTY YEARS. 

JAMES W. BARTLETT. 

Gentlkmkn and Ladies: In attempting to write a paper on 
the progress of the Mechanic Arts in the last fifty years, I find 
the field so vast that I can only hope to glean a little here and 
there, to note a few of the most glaring facts, to find out, as near 
as I can, what was the then state of the arts, and what they have 
arrived at, at the present time ; to put in a priek-puncli mark, 
"as it were," so that some other machinist, fifty years hence, can 
take up the subject where I have droi)ped it and carry it on 
another fifty years. No doubt he will ridicule the small begin- 
nings that I consider so wonderful, and laugh at our ignorance of 
what are, to him, self-evident facts ; hut he wont hurt our feelings, 
for we shall have gone over to the majority. If 1 should confine 
myself to Michigan, I should have little to say, though some of 
the largest manufactories in .Vmerica are situated in the vState. 

When this State was admitted into the Union there was hardly 
a trace of the Mechanic Arts within her borders ; a few farmers 
scratched the earth on the banks of our great lakes and rivers, a 
few grist-mills were driven by the unstable winds, or by the slight 
falls in our sluggish streams; some were even run by the slow ox 
pacing his weary round ; half a dozen small saw-mills, driven by 
water power, had beguti to cut their way into the forest; steam 
navigation had commenced on the lakes, and there were four 
steam engines in or near Detroit, all of them not aggregating 
one hundred horse-power; the houses were mostly built with an 
axe, which was the most useful, and almost the only tool known 
to the inhabitants. The noble red man was still among u.i; 
hundreds of their canoes could be seen at once, from the banks of 
the river near Detroit; they had got out of the stone age, into 
the age of whisky. The Indians were not great mechanics; but 
three of their inventions have never been improved upon l)y the 
most skillful experts of modern times ; the snow-shoe, toboggan 
and birch-hark canoe were perfected before Columbus crossed the 
Atlantic. 



310 Michigan's semi-centennial, 



THE FIRST USE OF MACHINERY. 



Probably the oldest, and certainly the most sacred use of ma- 
chinery is in public worship ; for praying-machines, moved by 
hand or driven by water power, are now, and from time imme- 
morial have been in use. In Northern Asia they consist of 
revolving cylinders on which are carried or written a form of 
prayer. In modern times it is the words "Oom Nannie Puime 
Oom," something repeated thousands of times. These machines 
are set up along the highways, so that travelers can set them 
whirling, thus repeating thousands of prayers at each revolution. 
Water-falls are taken advantage of to turn them, and thus to 
send up constant streams of supplications; to the great saving of 
manual labor, as they keep going, no matter what sins their owner 
may be committing. So old is this custom, that one of our lead- 
ing scientists, in a lecture on the discovery of fire, gives as his 
opinion, that the first fire known by man was caused by one of 
these machines taking fire from a hot bearing. For this reason 
fire has since been an object of worship, and the worship of fire 
preceded its use for cooking or heating. 

The mysterious whirls and tops, of which so many were found 
in digging for the ruins of Troy, which were graven with unknown 
alphabets, were probably fly-wheels to hand praying-machines, 
similar to those now used in Thibet. 

Andrew Wilson, in the "Abode of Snow," says: "I found 
the ordinary prayer-wheel used. A brass cylinder about six 
inches long and two inches in diameter, containing a long scroll 
of paper, on which were written innumerable reduplications of the 
Lama prayer, " Om ni pad ma houn," and whicli is turned from 
left to right in the monk's hand by means of an axle which passes 
through the centre. In the Lama temple I found a still more 
powerful piece of devotional machinery, in the shape of a gigan- 
tic prayer-mill, made of bronze, about seven or eight feet in diam- 
eter, and which might be turned either by hand or by a rill of 
water, which could be made to fall upon it. This jirayer con- 
tained, lam afraid to say how many millions of repetitions of 
the great Lama prayer. The neophyte who showed the prayer- 
mill to me, turned it with ease, and allowed me to send up mil- 
lions of prayers.'' 



ADDRESS OK .lAMKS W. IJAHTLKIT. 311 



THE AGK OF STKAM. 

The period, the close of which we are to-day celebrating, might 
be called the Age of Steam. 

About the beginning of the nineteenth ccntnry, the all- 
con(iuering power of steam having burst the wooden fetters by 
which mankind had tried to confine it, and struggling in its iron 
bonds, began its mighty work. Without its aid, modern civiliza- 
tion would have been impossible, the horse and ox had lent their 
feeble aid, the unstable force of the winds had long been used, 
and where water was so situated as to run downhill, the water- 
wheel was serving man in its weak way ; even the ebb and flow 
of the tides had been utilized; but with all these forces, human 
muscles had to bear the brunt of the labor of the world, till steam 
came to man's aid. What are the muscles of man compared to 
this untiring power? For, by the use of four pounds of the 
poorest coal an hour, steam will do the work of eight men. A man 
working 300 days a year for thirty years, will accomplish only the 
amount of labor that can be done by"22j tons of slack coal. The 
coal being worth SI. 75 a ton, so the labor of a man for au aver- 
age lifetime, is only worth $39,871. According to the census 
of 1880, there was used in the United States, for driving 
the machinery of its 85,932 manufactories, 3,410,837 horse 
power. '1^0 drive this machinery by human labor, > would take 
27,286,693 men ; and as there was but 14,744,942 men at work 
at all occupations, from preaching to ditching, we should have to 
enlarge our population immensely, before we could spare men for 
the purpose. And we also find that only 3,837,112 were 
employed at any manufactory, or at mechanical work ; so it 
would take over eight times as many men to turn the machines 
as to operate them, and to do, in addition, all other mechanical 
labor, that does not require power, such as carpentering, hand- 
weaving, tanning and baking. 

This 3,410,837 horse-power, is not nearly all that is used in the 
United States, no account being taken of engines used for pump- 
ing water, steam fire-engines, pile drivers, locomotives, or the 
thousands of engines used for farm purposes Pumping water for 
Detroit takes 2,000 horse-jmwer daily. If we de])cnded on human 
labor for our water supply, it would take 22,000 able-bodied men 
to keep us in drinking water. What an addition to our population 



312 Michigan's sExMi-centenxial 

this would be ; as we fiud by the census, that less thau one-third 
of mankind, in the United States, work for a living, the addition 
to the inhabitants of the city would be 66,000 people. Add to 
these, the mechanics to construct their houses, tradesmen to supply 
their groceries and dry goods, ministers, school-teachers and doc- 
tors, to take care of their morals, education and health, to say 
nothing of city officials, tax collectors, policemen and saloon- 
keepers. What a power could be shown by 22,000 intelligent 
voters, united in one interest, and voting as one man I What a 
calamity a strike would be! We should all have to take our 
pails and form a grand procession towards the river. 

Within a few days I have found out that I have plagiarized 
from the works of an old citizen of Michigan, for a title of a poem 
written in 1880, by Major General Whitney, is "The Age of 
Steam ;" but as I suppose this title has been used hundreds of 
times since, I won't change it, and I humbly apologize to our old 
ancestor for stealing his thunder. 

I have overestimated the value of the labor of a man, for com- 
paring him with the modern compound engine, his work for a life- 
time only equals 9^ tons of hard coal, or the value of 28.88 dollars 
in soft coal. 

FREIGHT. 

Before the advent of steam, civilization was confined to coun- 
tries near natural harbors and the banks of navigable streams, for 
water-courses were almost the only highways known, the only 
exception being portages between two seas, where coramei'ce had 
to pass for a short distance over laud. The cheapest method of 
land transportation was by camels, well called the ships of the 
desert, and on their track over the portages between the Mediter- 
ranean Sea and the Indian Ocean great cities sprung up, the 
stupendous ruins of which are now in uninhabited deserts. Petrea, 
Baalbec, Palmyra, and many others, once flourished, whose names 
are forgotten, and whose sites are only marked by heaps of cut 
stone, and here and there a broken column. The want of harbors 
and rivers keeps the "Dark Continent" of Africa a barbarous 
country, except a narrow strip along the northern coast and the 
banks of the Nile, which from pre-historic times has been the seat 
of the highest civilization; the camel, introduced about the 
Christian Era, half civilized the countries bordering on the 
southern edge of the great desert ; l)ut in the South, on account 



ADDKKSS OF .JAMES W. B A Kl LKIT. 313 

of the destruction of all horses aud oxen by theseroot fly, the only 
beast of burden being man, the only merchandise that will pay 
for transportation is gold, ostrich feathers and ivory, and the 
never-failing crop of the country, Negro slaves, who transport 
themselves to the seaboard to do the work for the Christian 
races in the torrid zone. In America, all internal traffic was car- 
ried on by water, and all settlements were at the seaboard, or on 
the rivers and lakes; at every good harbor from Hudson Bay to 
Galveston settlements sprung up, and the banks of the Mississip- 
pi, Potomac, Hudson, Connecticut and St. Lawrence as high up 
as their first rapids, were peopled long before a tree was cut fifty 
miles inland. 

The profitable fur trade raised up a race of half-amphibious 
wood rangers, who carried their birch-bark canoes, and packed 
their goods and furs round falls and rapids, and from the head- 
waters of one stream acro.ss the water-shed of the Atlantic, to 
those running into the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, 
making portages by trails worn by the moccasins of generations 
of Indians. This kind of travel was reduced to a system by the 
Hudson Bay Company in tlie Northwest ; for in 1793, Alexander 
Mackenzie succeeded in crossing the continent, reaching the Pa- 
cific at Vancouver's Sound, by way ofFrazer's river. He had in 
1789 reachetl the Arctic Ocean, by the river that bears his name. 
In his works, 1 find a curious account of the method and cost of 
travel in those days, which did not materially change in that part 
of the country till after the Erie Canal was opened. The fleet 
started the first of May, from La Chine, eight miles above Mon- 
treal, with eight or ten men in each canoe, and their baggage, aud 
sixty-five packages of goods, six hundred weight of biscuit, two 
hundred weight of pork, three bushels of peas, for the men's pro- 
vision ; two oil cloths to cover the goods, a sail, an axe, a towing- 
line, a kettle, and a sponge to l)ail out tin- boat, and gum and 
bark for repairs. 

This is all they had for a voyage of five months, on the whole 
length of which they liardly passed a house; they slept on the 
ground where night found tiiem, and took rain or sun, without 
shelter. Their course was up the Ottawa River, through Lake 
Nipissing, down the French River, through Georgian Bay to 
Detour, up St. Mary's River to the Sault, round which tiiey car- 
ried their canoes, into Laki' .'^u[)erior, cruising round the north 



31-1 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

shore to Grand Portage, 130 miles from what is now Duluth. 
The trip from La Chine is a hard road to travel ; the voyageurs 
are frequently obliged to unload their canoes aud carry the goods 
upon their backs, or rather suspended in slings from their heads ; 
each man's ordinary load is two packages, though some carry 
three, the canoe being towed by a strong line. 

Over the portages, the canoe and all the lading is carried ; at 
some of them the rock is so steep and difficult of access that it 
requires twelve men to take the canoe out of the water ; it is then 
carried by six men, two at each end on the same side, and two 
under the opposite gunwale in the middle. On the trip to Lake 
Huron, there are twenty-nine places where the canoes must be 
taken out of the water, and thirteen where it is only unloaded ; 
the longest carry is 2,030 paces. They reach the Grand Portage 
in July, tote their packs over a nine-mile portage into waters run- 
ning into Hudson Bay, bring over packs of furs for a return 
load, put to sea, and return over the same route to Montreal, by 
the last of September, having been five mouths on the way. Those 
of us that have been in those forests in summer, will appreciate 
how much they must have suffered from mosquitoes. 

The cost of each caaoe was $ 50 

Pay of ten men (550 

Clothing, ten men 100 

Provisions, ten men 300 

Net cost, two loads |1,100 

Two canoe loads, goods up and furs for down freight, 11,700 
pounds. 

Net cost of freight, per pound, $9.04. Add to this the guide, 
foremen, clerks, and the expense of a large force at Grand Por- 
tage, who stay there summer and winter, and it will make pretty 
costly freight. North of the Grand Portage, men are hired by 
the year, and the freight costs twice as much as the lower lake. 
For taking a bale of furs nine miles over the Grand Portage they 
pay a silver dollar, or one cent a pound, and board the men the 
year round. 

And it cost something to feed them, where " corn is the cheap- 
est provision that can be procured, thougii from the expense of 
transport the bushel costs about !!i^5.00 at the Grand Portage," being 
all brought from Detroit. The Northwest company shipped their 



ADDRESS OF .TAMKS W. BAUir-ETT. 315 

goods from Montreal iu boats to Kingston, and from thence in 
vessels to Niagara, then overland ten miles to a water commnni- 
cation, by boats to Lake Erie, where they were received into 
vessels, and carried over that lake up the river Detroit, and the 
Sinclair to Lake Huron, and from there to the Falls of St. Mary, 
where they were again landed and carried for a mile above the 
falls, and shipped over Lake Superior to tlie Grand Portage. 
This is found to be a less expensive method than canoes, but 
attended with more risk, and requiring more time than one short 
season of this country will admit. For the purpose of conveying 
all these things, they have two vessels upon the Lakes Erie and 
Huron, and one on Lake Superior, of from 50 to 70 tons burthen. 
The fur traders purchased in Detroit Indian corn and flour; the 
corn was prepared in Detroit, by boiling it in a strong lye which 
takes off the outer husk, well washed, and carefully dried. This 
is the first manufactureil article I can hear of, ex[)orted from the 
State ; and it must liave been a large export, as it was the only 
vegetable food used by the voyageur-'^ above the Grand Portage ; 
a quart boiled for two hours, with two ounces of suet, was a day's 
ration of the canoe men ; it was called hominee. Under these 
conditions of expensive freight, and toilsome travel, no country 
could be settled ; there being no outlet for the crops, no surplus 
was raised ; furs being the only article of value enough to bear 
the expense of transportation to the seaboard. Having little 
commerce, everything except luxuries must be raised, or made on 
the spot; the inhabitants raised grain and cattle, and caught fish, 
enough to supply themselves with food ; the skins of animals, 
and cloth spun and woven by the women, from wool from their 
sheep, furnished their garments, so that there was no motive for 
labor, except to supply their daily wants ; the natural increase of 
the inhabitants was the only accession to a population that cared 
little for what was going on in the outside world. The first step 
in improvement was caused by the opening of the Erie Canal 
across the State of New York, which gigantic enterprise con- 
nected the Great Lakes with the rest of the United States, chang- 
ing their seaport from Montreal to New York, which, with the 
advent of steamboats on the lakes, started the swarm of emi- 
grants that liave long ago reached the Pacific Ocean, and are now 
gleaning back over the field for the spots they passe<l over in 
their hastv niareli. Wliih^ Michigan remained a Territory, it 



316 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

seems to have been avoided by settlers ; those who came about 
that time were from two to . three weeks on the way from New 
York, six to teu days on the canal and four or five days by 
steamer on the lake ; the lake fare was from $15 to ^^20. 

Erie Canal was completed in 1825. In 1834 the number of 
tons of freight that passed Utica was 396,000, 57 per cent, being 
lumber and cord-wood.' The only freight that seems to have 
came from the upper lakes were furs. In 1885, the through 
freight between Buffalo and Albany was 1,597,620 tons, worth 
$-i7, 892,167, and probably more local freight was carried in 18'i5 
than the total amount in 1834." Last year 5,671 canal boats 
cleared from Buffalo, their average cargo being equal to 8,000 
bushels of wheat or 240 tons; they reach tide-water in from eight 
to ten days. The speed at which cargoes are handled is some- 
thing marvelous. ^ The barge Golden Age, the second in size 
of any craft on the lakes, has arrived at Buffalo in the morning, 
discharged 91,500 bushels of wheat, taken on 2,600 tons of coal, 
and left port the same evening; she is six days in reaching Chi- 
cago, two days in unloading the coal, and four hours loading with 
wheat; 1,800 tons of coal has been loaded on a vessel in 119 
minutes, and 6,550 tons on four vessels in eleven hours.* Many 
of our large steamboats make a round trip a week, and some 
have made twenty-two in a season, and they run with great 
economy, so freights are cheap. 

This year the average freight on the canal is 5 cents, and from 
Chicago to Buffalo, 2V cents a bushel, though they were much 
lower last year ; now it costs, with elevator charges and insur- 
ance, from 9 to 10 cents to deliver a bushel of wheat at tide" 
water, from Chicago, and it has been done as low as 6 cents, 
which is at the rate of one-tenth of a cent a pound. Sixty years 
ago it cost 9 cents a pound without insurance. Therefore, freight 
was ninety times as high in 1826 as at the present time. Even 
the railroad freights are not so very high, for they will take a 
barrel of flour from Chicago to New York for 50 cents, carrying 
it 950 miles for what a drayman would cliarge to haul it two 
miles. 



1 Canal report, 18.S4. 

'' Charles O. Irish, Collector of Statistics, Erie Caiiul. 

3 F. Salter, Esq., Grand Trunk R. R. 

< Mr. Langdon, D., L. & W. R. R. Co. Mate of the Gokleu Age. 



ADDKK.SS OK .lAMKS W. HA IM I, I 'I'l'. ?» 1 7 

The loading i)f" caual boats is done at great speed, as 8,000 
busliels of wheat is spouted into tliem in an hour from the ele- 
vators ; but the speed on the caiuil has not increased, as two horses 
at a walk is still the method of jjropulsion, thougli steam is some- 
times used, one small engine driving two boats, but it is not found 
economical to increase the speed, over that of the horse, as it 
washes the banks too much. This spring, the canal is used to its 
utmost capacity, and much freight intended for the canal was 
shipped by the railroads. Ft is proposed to lengthen the locks to 
increase its capacity. 

I quote from a paper read by Edward Atkinson before the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science at Ann 
Arbor, August, 1885: "In the period under consideration, the 
screw propeller has finally displaced the paddle-wheel in all ocean 
traffic. At the same time the compound steam engine has been 
perfected, the end of both being that the fuel required has been 
vastly reduced, and where it required over 200 tons per day of 
coal to cross the Atlantic twenty years since, a much more 
capacious steamer is now driven across by the use of 35 tons." 

But this statement is far from showing the full change. The 
important matter is the ratio of fuel to the weight moved ; every 
pound of coal now carries thirty-two times as much cargo across 
the Atlantic as could be carried thereby in tlie eai-lier days of 
ocean navigation. 

The steamer " Persia " in 1850, consumed 1-1,500 lbs. of coal to 
each ton of cargo, while even the racer " Arizona" in 1882, con- 
sumed only 450 His. per ton of cargo. In the freight steamers, 
assuming paper to have the same calorific value as coal, the com- 
bustion of an ordinary letter, such as carried by mail for a two- 
cent stamp, Wduld move a ton of cargo and its share of the vessel 
two miles. A lump of coal which can be mailed anywhere in the 
Postal Union for one cent, would do the same work. Thus has 
room been made for cargoes of provisions or other merchandise, 
now carried at low cost more than half way round the world, to 
feed and clothe the people of the most distant lands. 

LltiHT-HoUSKS AM) WAPKH COUR5>K^; OX THE LAKES. 

In 1830 there were but nineteen light-houses on the lakes, seven 
of these were below the Niagara river. The tirst built on the 
upper lakes was at Marblehead, Ohio, in 18J1. Butialo Light 



318 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

was buik iu 1828, Fair Port, Fort Gratiot, Cleveland, Beaeon, 
Turtle Islaud and St. Joseph, in 1881, Pelee Island iu 1833, and 
Conneaut, Ashtabula, Cleveland, and Huron in 1835, making ten 
below Detroit and two above. There was no light from the head 
of the St. Clair on Lake Huron to the foot of Lake Michigan. 
The few vessels navigating the upper lakes could only draw eight 
feet of water, and to get that, had to go round by the North 
Channel through St. Clair Flats. In 1857 St. Clair Flats cut was 
made, also that through Lake George, and the canal was finished 
round St. Mary's Falls, so that boats drawing thirteen feet of 
water could go to Chicago, and a depth of twelve feet could be 
carried into Lake Superior. New light-houses were constantly 
being built and cuts were made into Chicago, Saginaw, and Port- 
age Lake. Harbors of refuge were lighted, and extensive piers 
were built, making artificial harbors at Chicago, Sand Beach, 
Marquette and other places. A new cut was made through the 
Flats into Lake St. Clair in 1871, and afterwards deepened to 
twenty feet. In 1872 a canal was dug from Green Bay to 
Lake Michigan, A new set of locks were opened September 1, 
1881, giving sixteen feet of water into Lake Superior. At Lime 
Kiln Crossing a cut is now in progress through solid rock, which 
will give a depth of water of twenty feet, which is as deep as will 
ever be needed, as that is all the water tliat cau be carried over 
Lake St. Clair. 

There are now 354 light-houses on the lakes, 239 of which are 
American and 115 Canadian ; twenty-two of these are provided 
with fog-signals. The lakes have been accurately surveyed and 
charted. Buoys and beacons mark all channels and shoals. 
Hay Lake channel is being opened, which will lessen the distance 
to Lake Superior eleven miles, besides making a straighter course, 
nineteen feet deep, that can be lighted so that St. Mary's river 
can be navigated at night as well as by day. The new locks at 
Sault Ste. Marie are opened and shut by the power of water 
wheels driven by the falls, the njethod being hydraulic cylin- 
ders worked by a pump, a pressure of 300 pounds being carried, 
and oil used instead of water, to avoid freezing. The grounds are 
lighted by electricity, so that the locks are used by night as well 
as by day. 

The first year of the opening of the caual, the freight tonnage 
passing through the locks was only 5,000 tons. In 1885 it had 



ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. HAKTLETT. 319 

increased to o,2r)() ()28 tons, increasintf gradually till the new 
locks were opened in 18'S1, when it almost doubled in three years. 
Coal freight increased from 1(»0,()0() tons in J 879 to over 900,000 
tons in 1885. 

Wheat as a down freight increased, at about the same ratio as 
coal ; last year it amounted to 15,500,000 bushels. 

These water-ways and light-houses show a wonderful increase 
in the perfection of modern engineering. At Lime Kiln Crossing 
the work of deepening the channel is carried on in a swift current 
in the direct course of all the shipping to the lower lakes. The 
drills are moved by steam and the charges of dynamite exploded 
by electricity, without removing the scow ; each hole is drilled at 
the exact place marked on the chart, the position being directed 
from instruments set on shore. One of the great dangers of the 
!St. Mary's river was the Neebish Rapids, where the channel ran 
between immense rocks. The Canadian government had been at 
work twenty years blasting at these obstructions, and might have 
been at it twenty years more before they had got a safe channel. But 
three years ago the United States River and Harbor Engineer set 
a steam dredge at work on the other side of the river, and in a few 
weeks dug out a perfectly straight channel twenty feet deep, 
changing the whole course of the navigation of the river. 

The light-houses on the lakes are of every variety, from timber 
lattice-work to permanent structures of brick, stone and iron, and 
in every situation, I'roni the tops of high hills to foundations laid 
in water twenty-two feet deep ; some are beautiful additions to 
the architecture of largo cities, and others are in the roughest 
waters of the lakes out of sight from the nearest land. Who has 
not heard of the Pharos of Alexandria and the Colossus of 
Rhodes ? And the books are full of tiie descriptions of the great 
achievement of building a light-house on Eddystone Rock, which, 
at the time, without steam, was a wonderful work. The rock was 
fourteen miles from harbor and almost covered at high tide, so 
the work could only be carried on at low water. Three structures 
were built within sixty-three years, before one could be got fo 
stand the weather. The inscription on it is, " Except the Lord 
build the house, they labor in vain that build it." 

Few who are not mariners, noticed an advertisement in 1882, 
giving notice that a light would be shown at Stannard Rock, Lake 
Superior ; and few except fishermen have been within five miles 



320 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

(»f it. The problem was to build a light-house forty miles from 
the nearest harbor, in twelve feet of water, in an almost arctic cli- 
mate, where the terrible force of moving ice was to be guarded 
against as well as the fierce dash of the waves. A crib ninety feet 
square was built at Huron Bay, towed out by four steamers, and 
sunk at the proper place on the reef This formed a foot-hold for 
future operations. A ring of boiler-iron fifteen feet wide was hung 
over the water's surface by twenty-four long screws and scribed true 
with the bottom of the lake, which was a rough trap-rock vary- 
ing in depth of water about seven feet in the circumference of the 
ring; at one place it varied seven feet in ten feet in length. This 
ring was cut off at the scribed mark, armed with a bag of okrum 
and lowered to the bottom by the use of screws from which it had 
hung. Plates were riveted on to raise it to thirty-three feet ; it 
was then pumped out dry and filled with concrete, making a 
monolith of concrete, solid as a rock, sixty feet in diameter and 
thirty-five feet high. On this was erected a round cut-stone tower 
twenty-six feet in diameter at the base, surmounted by a cast-iron 
balcony, watch-house and lantern, the centre of the lens being 
seventy-eight and a half feet above the water. The structure is 
divided into five stories, which are used for living-rooms, occupied 
by the light-keepers, and below the surface of the concrete are 
rooms for two fog-signals and cellars for coal and supplies. The 
weight of the concrete in the base is but little less than 20,000 
tons, and much more than this weight of stone was used for keep- 
ing in place the temporary crib work. Add to this the cut stone 
and iron for the tower, which was quarried and prepared on shore 
and carried over forty miles of water LaiKfing could only be 
made at the crib in calm weather, and the working season was 
only four months in tlie year, owing to the inclemency of the 
weather. Fifty years ago such a work would have been impossi- 
ble, but with the help of steam, most anything can be done. 

The first of this class of work on the lakes was at Spectacle 
Reef, where a coffer-dam of wood was sunk in substantially the 
same manner as that at Stannard Kock ; the dam was pumped 
out, the rock below was cut level, and a structure built from the 
bottom with massive cut stone dove-tailed together and pinned to 
the rock below. This, being the first great work of this kind, was 
a most daring and successful piece of engineering. Spectacle Reef 
id sixteen miles from the nearest harbor, and in the roughest part 



ADDKIOSS OF JAMK6 \V. liAK'lLETT. 321 

of Lake Huron. You would have to search many public docu- 
ments to find who was the projector of these great works, which 
few of us have ever heard of 

STKAMIJOATS ON TlIK [.AKES. 

The first steamer on the lakes was the low-pressure, side-wheel, 
beam-engine boat "Ontario," built at Sackett's Harbor, in 1816. 
She was schooner-rigged, with a small cabin abaft the wheel-house. 
She was 110 feet long, 213 ton burden, her cylinder was thirty- 
four inches diameter by four feet stroke. The first steamer which 
ever stirred the waters of Detroit River was the " Walk in the 
Water," arriving at Detroit August 22, 1818. The first boat 
built in Michigan, in 1834, was named " Michiu^an First," and was 
built in Detroit at the foot of First street, by Capt. Blake. She 
was 470 tons burden, and had two low-pressure beam-engines, and 
cylinder boilers set in brick-work; the cylinders were 3H inches 
in diameter and nine feet stroke. Five other boats were built in 
this State before 1836 ; ninety steam crafts were built on the 
lakes before 1836, aggregating 23,222 tons, the average being 258 
tons ; forty-two of these were built below Niagara Falls, leaving 
forty-eight that could have reached Michigan ; and, as many of 
these were lost early in their career, it would be safe to assume 
that not more than twenty steamboats were running on Lake 
Erie in 1836. 

There was less than one arrival of a steamboat a day at Detroit. 
Four trips of the "Michigan First" were sufficient to do all the 
business between Buffalo and Chicago for the year 1836 ;' and it 
was nine years before the sound of an exhaust pipe was heard on 
the waters of Lake Superior, when the " Independence " was 
moved round the falls on rollers and launched above the rapids. 
Compare this with the shipping of to-day." Last year there were 
46,93y passages of vessels through the Detroit River, carrying a 
freight tonnage of 19,645,271 tons. Navigation l)eing open on 
the average of 224 days in the year, so 209 vessels a day pass 
Detroit, being 81 an hour for the whole season, and more vessels 
pass and more freight is carried through the locks at the Sault 
into Lake Superior than passes through the Suez Canal, the great 
thoroughfare between Europe and Asia. 

' Theo. Hiuchinaii. ■' Qeueral O. M. Poe. 

21 



322 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Almost every style of engine now used for paddle-wheel l)oats 
was early in use, high and low pressure, double and single beam, 
horizontal, and square and side-lever and even the compound 
were tried. The first horizontal engine had fly-wheels, and one 
running to Mount Clemens had the paddle-wheel driyen by a belt ; 
but most of the engines used before 1832 were of the so-called 
" Pittsburgh Style," having one or two cylinders from 16 to 24 
inches, and from 7 to 9 feet stroke, with the poppet valves at each 
end, worked by long levers, moved by wippers on a rocker — 
shaft, running across the centers of the cylinders, driven by an 
eccentric. The connection-rod was of wood over twenty feet long, 
driving cast-iron cranks. The shafts were of cast-iron, the bed- 
plates of wood with a light plate of iron, to carry the cylinders 
and slides. From two to five two-flue boilers 20 to 24 feet long, 
were used, placed below deck and cased in brick-work. 

This style of boiler held its place till long after 1850, at which 
time the first tubular boilers were built, tubes being introduced 
at that date. They were superseded by the return tubular-boiler, 
which has held its place till to-day. 

When Illinois was being settled, from 1842 to 1852, was the 
palmy time for this class of boats ; seyeral passed Detroit every 
day packed with emigrants, like sardines in a box, some boats 
carrying 1,500 passengers. They must have carried very high 
steam, as the sound of their exhaust could be heard at Detroit as 
they entered the river at Maiden, two hours before they arrived 
at the city. 

Between 1850 and 1860 this class of boats was superseded by 
those driven by low pressure beam-engines, the largest of which 
was the " Plymouth Rock," 1,991 tons burden. She was used for 
passengers between Buffalo and Detroit. Her cylinder was 82 
inches in diameter by 12 feet stroke, which was the largest ever used 
on the lakes. Her wheels were 36 feet in diameter. This style 
of engine is the only one now in use for side-wheel boats. Many 
boats have been built of this type, and some of them are very 
fast ; even as high as twenty-two miles an hour is claimed for some 
of them. The fastest mercantile boat in America is of this type. 
They are particularly adapted for river navigation and for shoal 
water. The largest beam-engine ever built is on the " Pilgrim," 
now running on Long Island Sound. The hull is 374 feet long 
and <S8.I feet wide over all; depth of hold 18i feet, steam-cylinder 



ADDKKSS OF .TAMKS W. I?A IMI.KTr. 323 

110 inches diainetor by 14 feet stroke; each shaft is 26 inches at 
main journals by 40 feet long, which is the largest shaft ever 
made in the world. 

The fastest speed ever made by a steamer was by an Austrian 
tori)e(lo-l)oat, which was run at the rate of 27.(56 miles per hour, 
her average speed being 24.027. The first propeller was built on 
the lakes in 1842 ; and a few came into use every year until 1855. 
They were mostly small, the largest being 400 tons burden. In 
1856 and 1857, fifty-six were built, many of which were 900 
tons burden. This increase was owing to the opening of the St. 
Clair Flats cut. By 1870 many propellers were in use, of 1,200 
tons. The first to reach 2,000 tons was in 1876. 

As the channels were dug deeper, the boats were built larger. 
The standard propeller was an upright cylinder working down to 
a crank shaft. Before the canal was deepened to twenty feet, the 
wheels could not exceed nine and one-half feet in diameter. To 
drive such a wheel required an engine with twenty-eight-inch 
cylinder ; both high and low pressure were used. The non-con- 
densing engine, with one hundred pounds of steam, was consid- 
ered the most economical. Propellers were built of every size, 
from four-inch to fifty-two-inch cylinders; some of the great tugs 
for towing rafts using two thirty-inch cylinder engines. Com- 
pound engines, having been experimented on for many years, 
about 1880 be<jfan to take the place of all others. The steeple 
compound having the high steam piston working on the same 
rod as the low steam piston, this style had the merit of cheapness 
of construction ; but fir economy of fuel they wore far surpassed 
by the fore and aft compound, on which both cylinders acted as a 
separate crank, the cranks being set at right angles to each other. 
The largest boat on the lakes is the " Onoko," which is 302^ feet 
long, 39 wide and 25 deep, with 4 masts and 2 decks, and 6 
water-tight compartments. Her load on 141 feet of water is 
3,000 net tons, or 108,000 bushels of wheat and 164,000 bushels 
of oats. She has compound engines, high steam 30 inches, low 
steam 56 inches, 4 feet stroke, and runs ten miles an hour on the 
round trip. 

The most common and cheapest way of carrying freight is by a 
large barge towing two or more sailing barges. I will give a state- 
ment of the freight and fuel of a steam barge with two barges in 
tow. The power of steam barge being one high steam cylinder 26 



324 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

inches in diameter, and one low steam cylinder 44 inches, 42 
inches stroke, and 80 pounds steam pressure. 

Net tons carried by three barges, 70,087 tons, 7^ miles an 
hour. 

No. miles run by three barges is 14,453 in ten trips. 

Tons of coal cousuraed, 1,190 tons. 

Pounds of coal to carry 70,000 tons of freight one mile 164.55. 

Pounds of coal to carry 1,000 tons of freight one mile, 2.o5. 

The largest and fastest steamer afloat is the " Umbria " of the 
Cunard line; length 520 feet, width 57 feet, depth of hold, 40 
feet, tonnage 9,806. The engines are triple compound, one 71- 
iuch, and two 105-inch cylinders. At 110 pounds of steam, turn- 
ing 70 revolutions per minute, she runs 20.18 marine miles an 
hour, developing 14,321 horse-power ; being the highest indicator 
card ever taken. 

The number of American side-wheel steamers now afloat in the 

Lakes is 40 

CanadiaD is 110 

Total 150 

American propellers is 887 

Canadian propellers is 202 

Total 1 ,089 

Total number of steamboats, 1,239 

American tonnage 289,864 

Canadian tonnage 82,057 

Total 371,921 

This shows the progress made in fifty years. We have over 
sixty times the number of steam crafts, and one hundred times the 
tonnage in 1886 as we had in 1836. The total number of steam 
crafts in the United States is 5,513. 

Some old shipping news, from the Buffalo Gazette, October 10, 
1811. The schooner Salena, Capt. Davis, arrived at this port 
(Black Rock), September 30, 1811, with a cargo of furs, valued 
at $150,000. (This was one of the 70-ton schooners of the North- 
west Company, and few of our largest steamers ever had such a 
valuable load). 

1815. There are now two brigs, thirty-five schooners, and four- 
teen sloops on the lakes. 

1817. Average weekly arrivals and clearances, six. 



ADDKESS OF .lAMKS \V. 15 A KIT,!; IT. 325 

1818, August 27. The steamer Walk in the Water (the first 
steam craft on the upper lakes), started for Detroit with 150 
passengers, at $20 a head. 

1819. Six arrivals a week. 

1831. Number of vessels on Lake Erie ; Americau sailing ves- 
sels 58, tonnage 3,118 ; British sailing vessels 17, tonnage ; 

Americau steamers 10, tonnage 1,906. 

Daily line of steamboats for Detroit, Niagara, Wm. Penn, 
Ohio, Enterprise, Superior, Shell-Thompson. 

November 24. The whole number of vessels navigating the 
western lakes, is about 100, averaging 70 tons. 

Detroit Journal, 1831. The number of entries and clearances 
at Detroit in 1830 was 1,000, average value of cargo about 
$5,000. 

Buffalo Patriot, July 4, 1832. The steamboat Pennsylvania 
was launched at Erie; she is 400 tons burden, and has double 
engines 80 horse-power, being decidedly the largest and most 
splendid boat on the lakes. 

The Walk on the Water made between eight and nine miles an 
hour, and in 1819 made her trips to Detroit in five days, and to 
Mackinaw and back in two weeks. In 1820 she left Detroit 
every Saturday. 

RAILROADS. 

Fifty years ago the railrond w-as in its infancy. It was not till 
1837, that the seventy miles between Albany and Utica were 
completed. Passengers from New York to Detroit were from ten 
to sixteen days on their way, going by steamboat on the Hudson, 
by rail to Utica, by canal to Buttalo, and steamboat or sail on the 
lake. The first locomotives started in Michigan in the fall of 
1837. They were brought out by Jose])h Briscoe, who still lives 
in Detroit, and were built by Ualdwin in Philadelphia. The 
cylinders of these locomotives were ten by fifteen inches stroke. 
The road was two ditches, lengthwise to the road, in which were 
placed long timbers cut by the roadside, flattened on the bottom 
and gained in at the top, to receive cross-ties which were held in 
place by wedges. On these were spiked oak stringers five by 
seven inches, and on these were sj)iked iron bars 2^ by {', making, 
when new, a smooth and solid road, but a few years after, the 
most dangerous track that a locomotive ever was run over. In 
1842 the road was completed to Jackson, making a small fraction 



326 Michigan's skmi-centennial. 

of the great net- work of iron that now covers the United States, 
there being length enough to reach around the world. 

To level the way for the rails, hills have been cut down, valleys 
iilled up, mountains tunneled and rivers bridged. They pass 
through great cities and uninhabited deserts, linking the ends of 
the earth together, and annihilating space. Passengers can now 
go from New York to San Francisco in seven days, sleeping and 
eating while traveling, without leaving the car. The first trip 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific by canoes, took Mackenzie as 
many years ; and Lewis and Clark were twenty months on their 
trip from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia river. To-day 
they could repeat their trip in four and one-half days. 

The first locomotive used in America was in 1829. It was built 
by Peter Cooper ; it was tried on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 
making thirteen miles an hour. One carriage was attached carry- 
ing thirty-six passengers. It was rated at one-horse power. The 
standard engine of 1836, had ten-inch cylinders, sixteen-inch 
stroke. It was inside connected with the two driving-wheels four 
and one-half feet in diameter, and a pair of pony wheels in front, 
though some builders had adopted the 4-wheeled truck-frame now 
in use ; they all had horizontal boilers, substantially like those 
now used. Only two eccentrics were used, which had to be turned 
on the shaft in reversing. Next came two eccentrics with hooks 
above the rocker-pin, lowered by carabs in reversing ; the bottom 
of the hook was enlarged to a V-shape, so as to catch the pin 
easily. All these styles necessitate hand-levers, and it was a 
hazardous job to reverse an engine at a high rate of speed. The 
next improvement was to connect the hooks by links, one rod 
being under the pin and the other over. 

Many had cut-off valves of every known style, the separate seat 
came first, and alterwards the riding cut. About 1847 the first 
link motion was introduced from England. This was adopted at 
once by all the builders, and holds its place till now. In 1840, 
Hinkley and Drury commenced building outside connected 
engines, which style has superseded all others. The old engine 
had no cab, the engineer being out to the weather. Wood was 
the only fuel, and great spark arresters were necessary ; cow- 
catchers came early into use, and also sand-boxes. Steam gauges 
came in in 185U, followed by the pony pump and injector ; few 
engines were in u.se with more than a single pair of drivers until 



ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. IJAKTI.KTT. 827 

1840. The first cars had ouly four wheels, aud one wheel on 
each axle was loose on the shaft, and held by a pin and washer. 
The modern passenger car is sixty feet long, and the sleeping cars 
are fitted up in most expensive manner ; they have paper wheels 
and run with the most perfect smoothness. The standard freight 
car is thirty-four feet long and will carry twenty tons, each car 
having truck-frames at each end, and provided with eight chilled 
wheels. Refrigerator cars are largely in use ; meat killed in Chi- 
cago being shipped to New York and thence to Europe. Tank 
cars carry petroleum, when beyond the pipe lines, which are laid 
in the ground from the wells to the seaboard, through which the 
oil is pumped in immense quantities for thousands of miles. 
Robert Stevenson wrote in 1838, "Small engines are losing 
ground, and large ones are daily demonstrating that powerful 
engines are more economical." He sends a sketch of his latest 
engine, weighing nine tons ; and capable of taking one hundred 
ton gross load, at the rate of sixteen or seventeen miles an hour 
on a level. The largest engine of to-day weighs seventy-eight 
tons; and the standard locomotive of the Michigan Central road 
drew 800 gross tons. The fastest speed ever made by a train 
was at the rate of eighty-four miles an hour. 

At the close of 1884 there were 125,379 miles of railroad iu 
the United States, which cost $7,476,865,782; number of passen- 
gers carried, 334,814,529 ; number of passengers carried one 
mile, 8,778,581,061 ; tons of freight carried, 400,453,439; tons of 
freight carried one mile, 44,725,207,677. 

If this amount of freight wa,s to be transported over such roads 
as we had in Michigan in 1836, it would have to be carried on 
pack-horses, and it would require over 200,000,000 animals, work- 
ing 365 days in the year. Allowing nine feet for each horse, it 
would make a caravan over thirteen times around the world at 
the equator. If carried on single wagons, on a good turn-pike, six 
miles an hour, it would require 20,422,470 teams ; at twenty feet 
for each, the procession would reach over three times around the 
world. There was in Michigan iu 1885 0,219 miles of railroad, 
2,7^0 locomotives, 1,218 passenger cars, 598 baggage cars, and 
84,810 freight cars. Number of miles run, 1884, 62,201,089. 
Number of passengers carried, 24,782,322. Number of passengers 
carried one mile, 1,()25,6<S0,009. Tons of freight carried one 
mile, 6,154,447,358. 



328 Michigan's semicentennial. 

There are in the United States and the connecting roads in 
Canada and Mexico 27,167 locomotives, 20,038 passenger cars, 
6,467 baggage and express cars, and 806,960 freight cars. If 
these were all made up into one train, it would reach 5,067 miles. 

machine shops. 

My brother machinists may be interested in a description of a 
machine shop fifty years ago. Most of the appliances known 
to-day were then in use, for about 1835 the first iron planer was 
imported from England. If my memory serves, the table was 
twelve feet long, and it would plane three feet square. It was a 
crude, clumsy machine, the bed being worked by a chain and the 
shifter thrown over by a ball on the end of a lever. Planers did 
not'come into general use till some years after. I commenced as 
a machinist in 1842, in a shop employing about fifty men, work- 
ing on cotton machinery. 

The lathes were small, the largest not swinging over thirty 
inches ; about half were hand-lathes ; there was but one screw" 
lathe in the shop, mostly used for cutting taps and worms. The 
bed-frames were of wood ; no planer was obtained till 1846. Much 
turning was done on hand-lathes. Screw bolts were mostly turned 
by hand and cut with chasers (a set of shoulder tools and chasers 
would now be stared at by modern machinists, as relics of an 
extinct race, like the stone arrow-heads or the trilobites found in 
the rocks) ; though such tools were used for turning and cutting 
all small bolts in 1863 in the largest shop in Detroit; and men 
are now living who have used them. The lathe beds, for want of 
planers, were all chipped and filed; no wrought shafting was in 
use; it was cast in the clutch-couplings, and was square, laged 
out, and covered with wood, forming a drum ; laging was nailed 
to form pulleys and the whole turned ofl^ in its bearings. Heavy 
shafting was cast with wings, to which gears were fitted by laying 
out, and chipping to the line with cold-chisels. 

All turned fits were made tapering, and the gear caulked or 
riveted on, like the modern piston fits ; keys wore not used to fasten 
work to shafting ; and turned pulleys, except very small sizes, 
were unknown. Gear cutters were largely used, as small castings 
were not as perfectly made as they now are. Babbiting, or pour- 
ing soft metal into a luirder shell, was unknown. 

Most of the work was done by hand-tools, the file and cold-chisel 



ADDRESS OK JAMES W. IIAUrLETT. 329 

played a great part in the business. Few machinists of to-day 
would care to undertake to chip and level such surfaces as valves 
and seats, or in the beds twenty feet long; but then it was the 
only method. It took a long time, and the work was never well 
done; for hand-work can never compete with that done on a 
machine. 

Allow me to go out of my way and say something about the 
men who did the work ; for that was in the good old time that we 
look back to with such longing. The wages of a machinist in 
the shop I first worked in, were 61.00 to $1.25 a day; one nabob 
of a patternmaker received the great sura of $1.50. For this 
sum, they went to work at five o'clock in the morning, and worked 
till half past seven at night, with an hour for breakfast and three 
quarters for dinner. It was several years before we obtained 
eleven hours a day. It has now been ten hours a day for twenty- 
five years or more, and we grumble at that, even though we may 
get more than twice the wages that we did forty years ago ; and 
we are hoping to get thesame or higher pay for working only eight 
hours. 

I am glad the world has moved so far in fifty years. 

In another thing we have improved on the good old times of the 
Harrison campaign, when we hallooed for §2 a day and roast beef 
as the ideal thing to be desired. I doubt if any nuin could have 
kept his place, if he did not vote as his employer wished. Cer- 
tainly four years later, we were all of the same stripe of politics, 
who worked for the great corporations. Novv-a-days the bloatedest 
bond-holder would not dare to dictate how his men should vote ; 
and if he did, they would probably vote the other way. I know 
the condition of the machinist is better than it was when I first 
joined the guild; he has better pay, better houses, better education, 
better living; and I ho))e he will keeji on improving for the next 
fifty years. 

Few boys now learn more than one branch of the business ; a 
lathe-man and a vise-man have separate trades. Few men can do 
all that pertains to building a steam engine. In the great fac- 
tories of specialties, a man may work for years on the same ma- 
chine, doing the same thing over and over again. Of course the 
work is well, quickly and cheaply done; but it don't make a 
machinist of the man. as a boy could learn such an art in a few 
weeks. The tendency at present is to get along with the cheapest 



330 miuhigan's semi-centennial. 

labor ; so we are making no machinists. Where the new stock is 
coming from, I am unable to see. 

Large machine shops were started before 1836; one in Lowell, 
Mass., employed over 1,000 men, on cotton machinery. Now the 
country is dotted with them. In them are made locomotives, 
portable engines, steam pumps, governors, fire-arms, cotton-ma- 
chinery, sewing-machines ; and numerous other staple kinds of 
iron work are made in duplicate, and sold to the trade. The 
making of fittings for steam an3 gas pipe employs armies of men. 
I contemplated making a list of the various attachments made 
for this class of goods; but I found it would be such a long cata- 
logue I should have no room for anything else. 

The machine shop proper, or rather the job shop, is seldom of 
a very large size. Those in which the largest engines are made 
employ comparatively few men ; for no one makes marine and 
water-works engines on stock for chance customers. They are all 
specially designed for the work they have to do, and are the labor 
of months or years ; and the shops for repairing must be near 
where the work is to be done. There are many such shops in 
Michigan ; but few, and none of large size, that work on special- 
ties. In Detroit, three are equipped for making globe- valves; 
one in Battle Creek for portable engines ; and wind-mills are 
made in Jackson ; but most of this class of goods are brought 
from other States. The first machine shop in Michigan started at 
the foot of Cass street, in Detroit, before 1833, by Dorr & Web- 
ber. In 1836 it was quite small, having about six lathes, mostly 
hand lathes, the largest swinging about thirty inches. They did 
repair and job work; put engines (that were built in other States) 
into boats built in Michigan. Their foundry cast kettles, plow- 
points and many other castings they could get to do in this fron- 
tier settlement. Under the superintendence of Patrick Keaven, 
this was the pioneer of the numerous shops that have made Detroit 
a great machine center. The building of locomotives was started 
in 1852, but was abandoned. Iron bridge-making, started in 
1861, has proved successful. We have built all the water-works 
engines for Detroit; the complicated machinery for tlie locks at 
Sault Ste. Marie, and the iron-work and machinery for the great 
sub-marine works at Waugoshance, Spectacle Reef, Staunard's 
Kock and Bar Point ; the lanterns and other iron-work of most 
of the light-houses on the lakes ; all of fog-whistles in use, and 



ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. IIAUTLETT. 331 

we also built the engine.s and converters for the great Bessemer- 
steel plants at Wyandotte and those at North and South Chicago, 
one of whicli is one of the largest steara engines in the world, 
indicating 12,000 horse-power. But it is by our steamboat en- 
gines that we have acquired our greatest reputation. The finest 
and largest engines on the lakes were built at the five shops en- 
gaged in that manufacture. One concern that started in 1809 
has built for dilierent boats: 22 high pressure engines from 20 to 
40 itieh cylinders; 12 condensing engines from 34 to 50 inch 
cylinders; _2 compound engines with high steam, 10 and low, 28 
to28and48.V; 01 marine engines ; 71 land engines from water- 
works to pony-pumps; 132 engines in all, besides doing a large 
amount of steamboat repairs and otlii-r job work. Since 1876 
they have built 155 marine boilers, weighing 3,758,915 pounds. 
To do all this they have 8 lathes, 4 planers, 6 drills, 1 slotter, a 
traversing crane worked by steam, forges, 2 cupolas, 39 and 04 
inches in diameter ; and for making boilei's, 2 sets of shears, 3 
punches, 1 riveting machine, 1 set of rolls, and 4 forges. This is 
a large amount of work for so few tools. 

The great car works make more show, there being two in 
Detroit; one of which employs 2,250 men and running four steam 
engines, they turn out sixty freight cars a day ; and three car- 
wheel foundries cast 875 chilled wheels weighing 240 tons, and 
160 tons of other castings daily. 

But the greatest amount of machine shop work has been the 
countless saw-mill engines, boilers and machinery that have been 
turned out in every part of the State, beginning nearly fifty years 
ago. Every few miles of territory has had at some time a saw- 
mill, which, when it has cleared off all the timber within reach, 
was moved or abandoned. The grist mills trade has its hundreds 
of engines, following the march of the saw-mills, and grinding 
the crops from the land which they have cleared. The preparing 
of the lumber for its various uses, requires many sash and blind 
works, stave and heading mills and pail and wooden ware numu- 
factories. Lately, lumber, instead of being shipped in a crude 
state, is mostly planed, tongued and grooved, made into siding, 
or cut into lengths for boxes ; even the entire wood work of 
houses is prepan-d here and shipped to all parts of the States. 

To illustrati' our progress, I quote from the life of James Nay- 
smith: "We next had a pair of 200 horse-power engines in 



332 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

baud." At that time such power as two hundred horse was 
scarcely thought of. They formed a noble object in the great 
erecting shop. Fifty years after, the then most powerful engine 
in the world, sixty times as large, and rated at 12,000 horse power, 
was erected in Michigan, and but few people knew about it or 
cared to go to see it. 

The largest machine-shop tools in the world are used in the 
United States. I quote the following dimensions and par- 
ticulars of the largest planer ever built and erected in any 
machine shop : 

" Length of bed, 40 feet ; length of bed-plate or table, 13 feet ; 
width, 16 feet; width between uprights, 18 feet ; height of uprights 
from table, 17^ feet; total height from floor, 23 feet 9 inches. 
Will plane 30 feet long, 18 feet wide and 13 feet high. The 
table is driven by a double-threaded screw 7 2 inches diameter, 
having a 3-inch pitch. Total weight 200 tons gross ; will plane 
lengthwise and cross-wise, and since the planer was erected attach- 
ments have been added for boring and slotting also. The power 
required to drive the planer is about 14 horse-power." ' 

I quote from another letter : 

" The two lathes you saw building in our works, are of the fol- 
lowing dimensions: Length, 90 feet; swing, 10 feet ; weight, 150 
tons each. We could cut a screw on them 70 feet long, or we 
could swing and finish as large a gun as has ever been made in 
Europe." ^ 

Boiler-making was first started in Michigan in 1833, when 
James Brennan came to Detroit from Buffalo, to build the boilers 
for the " Michigan t'irst," and established a shop that bears his 
name to-day. 

Boiler-plate at that time was imported, and the sheets were all 
26 inches wide. Large boilers were built of this awkward mate- 
rial. Compared to the boilers of to-day, they look like patch- 
work. The first boilers were cylindrical ; next came the two-flue 
boiler, which has held its place in our saw-mills. The introduc- 
tion of lap- welded tubes, changed the whole style of marine- 
boilers, and those in all places in which the cost of fuel was of 
any object. 

Boiler material has wonderfully improved. The old English 



' David 1?. Macomb, Chief Engineer of U. S. N. 
2 Wm. P. Hunt, South Boston Iron Works. 



ADDRESS OF JAMES \V. BAKTLEri'. 333 

iron was not trustworthy at over 30,000 pounds with the grain. 
It has heen rephiced by Anieriean iron, at 05,000 to 60,000 
j)Ounds tensile strength, and iron has tor the hist ten years been 
superseded by steel, which is e<iually strong in every direction, 
and is used in boilers as high in tensile strength as 70,000 pounds 
to the inch. Sheets are rolled to any length and thickness, up to 
100 inches wide and 6,000 pounds weight. 

The United States laws for the inspection of marine boilers 
have greatly diminished the risk of explosions. Racing steam- 
boats no longer have a nigger on the safety-valve, as in old days, 
and the loss of life of passengers from that cause is almost 
unheard of, though no law can do away with carelessness and 
recklessness in men. It can make the strength of the boiler so 
much greater than the steam allowed by the locked up safety- 
valve, that little chance is left for accidents. There are many 
boiler shops in Michigan ; five shops in Detroit are rigged up for 
making the largest marine boilers, having several styles of power- 
riveting machines ; punching^ sheari^ig, drilling and scaffing 
the sheets is done by steam power. The two boilers just com- 
pleted in Detroit for the Greyhound, are the largest in diame- 
ter ever built, viz.: loj feet diameter, I'il feet long, 350 inch 
flues and 261 3^ inch tubes; shell, S steel, 160,000 T. S.; weight, 
36 tons. ' 

This is the present fashion of boilers; but the styles are continu- 
ally changing. 

The foundry business, or the casting of metals, is a pre-historic 
art, and attained a high development at an early age. 

We read in Holy Writ that Hiram of Tyre dug a loam pit, 
and swept up and cast in brass, two columns twenty-seven feet 
long by six feet in diameter, with a separate base and capital for 
ornaments. 

These pillars were set up in front of the great 'J'emple at Jeru- 
salem, and were probably used as safes in which to deposit valu- 
ables to guard against destruction by fire. Such castings would 
be considered a difficult job to-day. In America tlie Mexicans 
and Peruvians cast gold, silver and brass; very fine specimens of 
their work are extant. The first foundry in the State was started 
in connection with the first machine-shop in Detroit before 1833. 

' John McGregor & Sons. 



334 Michigan's skmi-centp:nnial. 

They are numbered by hundreds, large and small, and are 
scattered all over the State. One in Detroit casts 264 tons of 
iron a day, and another employs 600 men under one roof. The 
largest castings ever made in the State, wei-e three shells for steel 
converters, which weighed over thirteen tons each. lu answer to 
an inquiry about large castings, I received an answer which I quote: 
"The heaviest casting we have ever made was for a twelve-inch 
rifle, and the rough casting was 123 tons weight. I do not think 
as heavy a casting as this has ever been handled anywhere ; al- 
though it is likely that foundations for steam-hammers may have 
been cast even of greater weight, by setting up cupola furnaces 
around a circle and leading the molten iron to a mould in the 
center, and the casting not moved afterward." ' 

The first iron casting made in America, was in 1645 by John 
Jenks of Lynn, Massachusetts. It was a small iron pot, capable 
of containing a quart. It has been preserved as an heir-loom by 
his descendants. The twelve-inch gun, before mentioned, was 
finished as a breech-loader, being thirty-six feet over all, lined 
with steel for sixty -nine inches of its length, and weighed, wheu 
finished, fifty-four tons; about half of the original casting having 
been turned into chips. It threw a projectile weighing 800 
pounds, as well as Krupp's steel guns, of the same size. It took 
ten months and twenty-five days to finish it." 

THE BLACKSMITH. 

The blacksmith's trade is also prehistoric, though not so uni- 
versal as the casting of brass. South of the Great Desert, Africa 
had no stone age, but the rude cupolas for smelting iron ore are 
now seen as fossils in the rocks. The negro blacksmith, sitting 
before his hut, smelts his own iron from the ore, converts it into 
steel and fashions it into edge-tools as good as any made by 
civilized man. King Solomon placed the blacksmith higher than 
any other tradesman, for all of them, on being asked, "• Who 
makes your tools? " answered, " The blacksmith." But when he 
asked the blacksmith, " Who makes your tools?" got for a reply: 
'• I make them myself" Till within four hundred years, wrought- 
iron and steel were the only form of the metal known ; for iron 

'- Win. Hunt, South Boston Iron Works. 
•■' Report of the Chief of Ordnance, 1885. 



ADDUKSS OF JAMKS W . I5A inTJ'/rr. .>.)0 

was first cast in moulds in France in the Hf'teenth century. The 
first notable forging inach^ in the United States, was the chain 
stretched across the Hudson river at West Point, to prevent the 
passage of the British ships, in the revolutionary war. The 
links were two feet long, and formed of two and one-half inch 
square iron, the chain weighed IKO ton.s. The largest forgiugs 
ever made in America were the main shafts of the Sound 
Steamer " Pilgrim." They were 89! feet long and 38:|: inches in 
diameter at the largest, and 26 inches at the smallest part, and 
each weighed 81,200 pounds. It took twenty men fourteen days 
to forge one of them, with the help of one of the largest steam- 
hammers in America. The largest steam-hammer in the States 
is in Pittsburg. Its anvil-block is eleven feet high, eight by ten 
at the base and six by four at the top; it weighs 160 tons. It 
was cast from five cupolas set up for the purpose. The steam 
cylinder is forty-inch bore, by nine feet stroke ; and the force of 
the blow is ninety-seven tons. Who can tell who was the first 
blacksmith in the State ? Wherever ijien are gathered toijether, 
there is always heard the roaring of the bellows, and the ring of 
the hammer on the anvil. Virgil describes the rhythm of the 
alternate fall of the sledges ; and no doubt, Tubal Cain sent up 
the same music, as he struck a blow between each one given by 
his sledgemen ; and now the horse-shoer is established at every 
cross-road. 

In old times blacksmiths were supposed to have dealings with 
the evil one; but now they are only famous for their power over 
the female sex ; for blacksmiths are alleged to always be able to 
obtain handsome wives. I have seen the hammersman of one 
of the largest steam-hammers hold hickory-nuts between his 
fingers and let his helper crack them with the ponderous ham- 
mer, capable of striking a blow of forty tons. It required more 
nerve, and more faith in the skill of a man than I shall ever 
have. 

The first large forge using steam power in Michigan, was started 
in Hamtramck, by John Ford about 1860. They had several 
steam hammers, and made car axles and heavy forgiugs up to 
twelve inches in diameter ; it burnt down about five years ago. 

The only steam forge in the State is at Springwells, though 
there are steam hammers in many of the machine shops. 

This concern runs two trains of rolls, using a large steam 



336 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

engine and three steam hammers ; the largest has a twenty-inch 
piston, four-feet stroke, moving a three-ton hammer. They make 
large shafting, and job work ; but their specialty is car work and 
axles, of which they turn out 100 a day, or 5,700 tons a day. 

THE DRAUGHTSMAN. 

But there is one branch of the machine shop business that has 
never changed. It was practiced by the unknown architect that 
built the Caaba, at Mecca, the great city of Thebes, the Palace of 
Nineveh, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and hewed out the 
Rock Temples of India, It was used in building the Acropolis 
at Athens, the Coliseum at Rome, the Alhambra in Spain, the 
ancient buildings at Uxraal and Palenque, in Central America, 
and all the great cathedrals of Europe. Without it the great 
bridges, steamships, water- works, light-houses, and machinery, or 
any of the great works of modern times, would have been impos- 
sible. It was practiced by Noah, by Hiram, the widow's son of 
the tribe of Naphtali, by Archimedes, Michael Augelo, Stevenson, 
Naysmith, Erricson, and by the machinist of to-day. All the 
great works and inventions have to pass through the hands of the 
draughtsman, who, with his rule, square and compasses, leans 
over the tressel-board, and puts the thoughts and inventions of 
the great masters into practical shape. He is a relic of pre- 
historic times, and his trade has never, and will never, change. 

From the time man conceived the idea of building, he must 
have had the means of measuring, striking circles, and laying 
out a square. And as long as civilization exists, there will be a 
draughtsman among men. 

In regard to the various text-books and ready-reckoners used 
by the profession, a reverend gentleman remarked: "The best 
proof we have, that the world has existed more than 5,000 years 
is, that Haswell has been written ; for the facts in the book could 
not have been accumulated in that time." ' 

THE STEAM ENGINE. 

As far as the main principles are concerned, the steam engine 
was perfected more than Hfty years ago ; beginning with the use 
of steam at atmospheric pressure, and only using the diifer- 

1 Dr. Hill, Waltham, Mass. 



AT)I)Ri:S> (tF JAAIKS \V. I'.A K ri.K.'ri'. 337 

ence between that and the vacuum. The old engiiieer.s began 
strengthening their boilers and carrying more and more pressure. 
Condensing, high-pressure and compound engines, and even steam 
over 500 pounds to the inch, was experimented with before 1836. 
The line of expansion of the steam cylinder was dcteriniued ; and 
all the great principles were discovered before tiiat date. Cut-off 
valves and the drop cut were tried; and we have been repeating 
their experiments, and re-inventing their inventions. But for all 
that, we build a much better and more economical engine than 
before. 

It is now possible to get castings and forgings of any desired 
weight ; and builders' failures are avoided, and merits imitated or 
improved upon. One great improvement is in substituting iron 
for wood in bed-frames and connecting-rods, and wrought-iron in 
place of castings for shafting, walking-beams, cranks, etc. 

But more advance has been made in the boiler, by being able 
to obtain larger and better sheets of iron, and the using of steel in 
the place of iron. We are using muoh more pressure of steam on 
our boilers. Fifty years ago, sixty pounds to the inch was 
thought to be high pressure ; but now one hundred pounds is in 
general use ; and on locomotives and river steamboats, where the 
water is too sandy for the use of tubular boilers, one hundred and 
fifty to two hundred pounds is safely used. 

The new appliances that have come into use within fifty years 
in the use of steam engines, are, the steam gauge, injector, and 
last, but not least, the exhaust injector, first used in 1883 in Eu- 
rope, and but just introduced into America. It uses the exhaust, 
which is a waste production, for forcing water into the boiler, 
which water it heats nearly to boiling point. 

FORMS OF THK STEAM ENOINF. 

In Leghorn, Italy, dredging machines may still be seen, clean- 
ing out the harbor, worked by eight men, who climb uj) a large 
wheel, and scoop up a few feet of mud an hour. The modern 
steam dredging machine will excavate three yards of sand at a 
haul, and make two scoops in a minute. 

Steam shovelers make cuts for railroads, level hills for filling 
up arms of the sea, and raising the land fi)r cities. Rock-drills 
are worked from scows, in twenty feet of water ; deepening chan- 
nels for navigation through solid rock. The revolving diamond 
22 



338 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

drill is used to prove up the country for raining purposes, to great 
depths; and the rock-drill, driven by a piston supplied with air, 
compressed to 300 pounds to the inch, have made the great tun- 
nels of the world a possibility, as the air used for drilling will 
support life, and takes the place of the deadly gases formed by 
explosives used in blasting the rock. Within twenty years power 
passenger elevators have become a necessity in large cities, where 
the value of land makes it necessary to build business blocks to a 
great height. The common power used in them is a piston, work- 
ing in a long cylinder, driven by water pressure, the speed being 
multiplied by pulleys. They are supplied from a tank on the 
roof, and the water exhausted into a tank in the cellar, and forced 
up again by a steam-pump, which works automatically, starting 
when the tank is empty and stopping when it is full. Of steam 
pumps there is no end ; great factories are making them of all 
sizes, and for every purpose. They vary from one that discharges 
fifteen gallons a minute, to such ponderous machinery as those 
that supply Detroit with water ; the weight of the metal work of 
which is 420 tons. I quote from an account of the first trial of a 
pile driver: " The pile-driving machine men gave me a challenge 
to vie with them in driving a pile. At a given signal we started 
together. I let on steam, and in four and a half minutes my pile 
was driven. It took them twelve hours to drive their pile." But 
giving the different forms in which steam engines have been 
built, or the different uses to which they have been put, would be 
like writing a dictionary, "Their name is legion." 

Given a force moving in any shape, and it is easy to get it to 
drive anything ; and we have contrived to put the force of steam 
into every conceivable shape. But it all comes to this: how much 
coal does it take to move a piston so far in a minute, against a 
certain pressure ? 

With the engines and boilers in use fifty years ago, there is no 
doubt that the average consumption of coal was as high as ten 
pounds an hour. Even now most engines consume half that quan- 
tity, few burning less than four pounds of coal to the indicated horse- 
power, an hour. In very large machines and pumping engines, 
where the work is constant, this result has been improved upon ; 
but till the compound engine came into use, few could honestly 
claim much better results as a yearly average. I have before me 
the record of a week's trial, which is the best that has been 



ADDRESS OF JAMES W. BARTLETI. 339 

accomplished as far as I can find out, by a land engine, cora- 
pouiui, steam jacketed, horizontal, tandem engine, with receiver, 
cylinders 20x8(3, 72-iuch stroke, steam 125 pounds to the inch, 57 
revolutions, ashes weiijfhed hack; result 1.65 lbs. coal an hour to 
one indicated horse-power. "Our pumping engines which have 
been in constant use, are doing equally as well, taking a whole 
year's work. The coal used during the test was of good Lacka- 
wanna, egg size." ' 

I have the result of a lake boat, fore and aft compound, 27 x 
42 in. cylinder; taking all the coal bought in three years, includ- 
ing that used in banking fires and moving boat and hoisting cargo 
in port, heating and pumping bilge-water; the time of running 
being between dock and dock ; the average coal being 2.50 lbs. a 
horse-power per hour, which is the best I can find on the lakes. 

The coal used costs $2.00 a ton ; therefore the expcmse of a one- 
horse-pow'er an hour with soft coal on the boat was $0.0025. The 
expense of the land engine, with hard coal at S4.00, is 80.0043. 
In either case, there has been a great improvement in cost in fifty 
years, as then we used four times as much coal per horse-power as 
we do now ; and it is claimed that ocean steamers with three 
cylinders compounded, get as low as one and a quarter lbs. of coal 
per hour, for a horse-power.'^ 

IKON SHir-Bril.DINO. 

The first iron vessel was launched 1817 ; audisstilliu existence. 
But not till 1832 did the work seriously begin. The first iron 
steamer to cross the Atlantic, was the " Great Britain '' in 1843. 
The first iron steam vessel on the lakes was the U. S. steamer 
" Michigan." The materials of this vessel were got out at Pitts- 
burgh, and put together at Erie, in 1840. She has been in com- 
mission ever since, and has performed the duties on her station 
well. She was built of light iron, none of her plates being over 
five-sixteenths of an inch thick. When rendering aid to vessels 
in distress, she has often been ashore ; and yet, after forty-two 
years of constant wear, she appears to be as good as when first 
built." ^ The propeller Merchant, by Bell, of Buffalo, built in 
1862, was the first iron vessel built on the upper lakes. Twenty- 
three more were built within the next ten years, and the work has 



' Corliss Steam Kngiiie Works. 'Sec'y Farwell. 'David Bell. Buffalo. 



340 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

been going on ever since, in I^uffalo, Cleveland, and Wyandotte. 
The keel has just been laid for the largest on the lakes. Lengtli, 
three hundred and twenty-two feet; beam, forty feet; moulded, 
twenty-six feet ; tri-cylinder compound, one thirty-six high steam 
and two fifty-one inch low steam, forty-eight inch stroke; three 
boilers thirteen feet diameter by eleven feet long. The engines are 
amid-ship, ocean steamer style, this being a great innovation on the 
former custom. Iron seems almost indestructible in fresh water 
vessels, if they are kept oflT the bottom, and painted every few 
years ; and therefore must soon entirely supersede wood in ship- 
building. 

bridges. 

A.S we travel over our railroads, we look with wonder not 
unmixed with fear, at the great bridges spanning wide rivers and 
deep gorges, and feel a relief when the train has safely passed the 
apparent danger. 

As you look over the " two iron lines that lay between you and 
destruction, you appreciate the Mohammedan fable of the Bridge 
Herat: thinner than a hair, sharper than the edge of a scimitar, 
which stretches over hell and leads to Paradise." ' 

But the danger is very slight, as there is hardly an instance of 
a bridge giving way under the weight of a train of cars; but two 
great bridges have been wrecked by the force of the winds. 

The increasing weight of locomotives and trains has made the 
structures of twenty years ago too light for the present traffic ; 
and, with hardly an exception, they have all been rebuilt or very 
much strengthened within that time. T quote from a letter from 
one of the great bridge builders : 

"The u.se of iron and steel in the construction of bridges is 
practically limited wholly to the last fifty years. A few experi- 
mental structures were built earlier ; but the art may fairly be 
said to have been born and to have grown to maturity during 
that time. Nothing could be better than stone arches that our 
forefathers built, and in suitable locations that design is still 
adopted ; but the advent of railroads and the immense increase of 
highways made imperative demand for larger, higher, longer and 
less costly spans, and the engineer was prompt to meet it. The 
modern truss bridge is as far in advance of the stone arch as the 
railroad train of the farmer's cart. 

> Theodore Higinson, Atlantic Monthly. 



ADDRKSS OF .TAMKS W . nAKTLETT. 341 

The mastery of the abstruse and complex mathematical science 
of stresses, and the careful and intelligent study of the qualities 
and capacities of materials, have rendered easy the construction of 
bridges that would have been simply impossible fifty years ago. 

The art of sub-marine founding is advanced to a high degree. 
Massive piers are by the pneuniatic process safely and easily carried 
down through great depths of water and quicksand, and silt and 
mud, to a solid bearing on the bed-rock, and the superstructure 
placed thereon is not uncommonly in spans of from 800 to 500 
feet. There are exceptional cases, when the peculiar circum- 
stances re(|uire much larger stretches. The Brooklyn Bridge is 
1,600 feet long between the piers, and the bridge now being built 
across the Forth at Scotland will have clear spans of 1,700 feet." ' 

The State of Michigan has ct)ntributed her share to the advance- 
meut in this department of engineering. For one of her great iron 
works, during the twenty-three years of its existence, has designed 
and built a great number of such structures, including some of 
the largest bridges in the country." 

SAW-MI LIVS. 

When the last census was taken, in 1880, there were in Mich- 
igan 3,581 manufacturing establishments, using power from l,74fi 
water-wheels, 3,085 steam engines, 4,109 boilers, developing 
164,747 horse-power. Seventeen hundred and fifty-three of these 
were saw-mills or sash and blind works, 706 were grist mills, and 
21 were paper mills. Wood working used more than half the 
power, or 93,623 horse-power, running 441 water-wheels, and 
1,670 steam engines, it being by far the most prominent industry 
in the State.' 

The first power used in Michigan drove a grist-mill built in 1701, 
in Cadillac's time, and called the Governors mill. It was in Detroit, 
on what was once May's Creek, now the Tenth street sewer, at the 
site of Sutton's pail factory. And in 1820 there was one on 
Bloody Run. In 1822 oxen were used to drive a woolen mill on 
Randolph street, by French & Eldridge ; and as late as 1833 
there was an ox-power grist mill in Detroit.* Fifty years ago 
there were several saw and grist mills, running by wind and 
water, at Detroit, Saginaw, Ypsilanti, and Mount Clemens.* The 
first steam engine was at the site of the Detroit water-works, in 



' Willard Pope. '-' Detroit Bridge and Iron Works. ^ Detroit Tribune. 

' United States C'ens\is, IS^O. ' Mr. D<ilson. 



342 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

1827, and used by Peter Van Avery for running a grist mill and 
distillery ; the second was at the machine shop at foot of Cass 
street;' the third drove the water-works; and in 1834 Justin 
Rice built the first steam saw-mill in the State, which was bought 
by Buckniinster Wight, who, with his descendants, have occupied 
the same location for sawing lumber, till within a few years. It 
was a small concern, running one nuiley saw, with a ten-inch 
cylinder engine; and it was the only steam saw-mill in the Terri- 
tory fifty years ago. This was the pioneer of the great army of 
saws that have cut their way into the wilderness of Michigan ; 
their track being followed up by clearings, farms, settlements, 
villages and cities. The level surface of the State furnishes few 
streams with fall enough to run water-wheels ; and little could 
have been done toward clearing up the forest till streams came to 
the aid of man. " 

The water saw-mills were weak affairs; one built at Grand 
Blanc in 1829, would cut only 2,500 feet a day; the largest of 
them could not turn out over 4,000 feet of lumber. Compare 
this with the mills of to-day.^ 

MODERN SAW-MILLS. 

The modern saw-mill is the most perfect devourer of the forest 
evfr known; the largest mills cutting 55,000,000 feet of lumber 
a year; and as the average of pine to the acre is about 10,000 
feet, one year's work will clear o,500 acres. At that rate our 
pine will soon be exhausted ; and fifty years hence the sound of 
the exhaust of the saw-mill engine may be heard on the shores of 
Hudson Bay, clearing away the forest south of the Barren Lands; 
frightening the reindeer, musk-ox and polar bear. '^J^o do this 
work, they use an engine 30 by 36 and a double engine 20 by 24 
and eight boilers 60 inches by 16 feet, running two circular saws 
and a gang, with edgers, lath- mill, etc.* 

The logs are brought into the mill from the boom, up an in- 
clined [)lane, by an endless chain. If they are large logs, about 
1,500 are brought up in a day; if small, they use up from 1,800 
to 2,000. As the logs pass from the chain, they are thrown right 
or left to the circulars which cut off" the slabs and square the log 
ready for the gang, which has from forty to fifty saws, through 



Patrick Keveney. ''L. Tinker. » Stanley Wight. <;Green Pack. 



ADDRESS OF .IAMP:S \V. HARTLETT. 343 

which the timber passes aud comes out lumber at the other end. 
The lumber is carried to the edgers, cut to width, and passed 
along by a series of rollers and deposited on cars, ready for ship- 
ment. No human labor is required, except to manage the ma- 
chinery. It is a sight to be remembered, to see a great mill in 
action, using up three logs a minute, aud turning them into 
lumber, lath, staves and heading; for in addition to the lumber, 
they manufacture from the slabs 14,000,000 lath, and barrel-stuff 
enough to barrel 60,000 barrels of salt which they boil down 
from brine, by the exhaust steam and refuse fuel. On a trial of 
the capacity of this mill, under the most fav'^orable circumstances, 
they cut 4")4,000 feet of one and one-quarter lumber in ten hours 
and forty seconds. And in a test of hauling logs on a sled, two 
horses drew 30,180 feet of logs at one load, one and one-quarter 
miles.' 

More than half the power used m the United States is em- 
ployed in working wood and grinding grain.' 

The stave mill is also constantly at work on our hardwood tim- 
ber, gleaning after the saw-mill ; and we may say of our forests : 
What the locust has spared, the canker-worm hath eaten. 

The United States Commissioner of Agriculture in 1883 esti- 
mated the uncut pine in Michigan, at 35,000,000,000 feet, which, 
at the then rate of consumption, would be exhausted in ten years. 
This State is the greatest lumber producing State in the Union, 
turning out one-Hfth of the lumber in the United States. Last year 
we manufactured 3,471, 4()0,501 feet of lumber, board measure; 
8,555,251,750 shingles ; '295,94(5,015 laths ; besides a quantity of 
staves and heading.^ 

But we must not think that skimming off the first cut of the 
white pine will finish up the forests of the State. Trees are still 
growing, in much of the lumbered lands, which, if kept from cat- 
tle and fire, will prove a supply for years to come, and scattered 
through all the older settled portions of the State, patches of 
growing woods are left, on most of the farms, which, with proper 
care, and the increasing use of coal for fuel, will furnish much 
lumber for our future needs. 

' ]j. Tinker. ^ Patrick Keveney. ' United States Commissioner of Agriculture. 



344: Michigan's semi-centennial. 



SALT. 

The makiug of salt, which is directly connected with the saw- 
mill interest, has grown up since 1860 to gigantic proportions . 
for, at that time, all the salt used in Michigan was imported from 
New York off' the seaboard. In 1879 the State produced almost 
half the salt made in the United States, making over 2,000,000 
barrels. Since that date we have increased our product about 
one-half, having made in 1885, 3,297,480 barrels. Fifty years 
ago, the sea-coast was lined with salt blocks for making solar salt; 
sea water being pumped up by wind-mills and evaporated by the 
sun. This process would do when salt could be sold for $1.00 a 
bushel ; but now this industry is practically abandoned, as in 
1879 only 9,577 bushels of salt was produced from sea water from 
the Atlantic ocean ; some little still being made in rainless Cali- 
fornia. Twenty years ago it was (and in many places in Michi- 
gan it still is) a great problem how to dispose of the waste from 
saw-mills. It cumbered the laud, filled up the lakes and rivers. 
In most places it was necessary to burn it, which was done at 
great expense and risk, either by building tall stacks of fire-brick 
and sheet-iron, into which the surplus saw-dust and slabs were 
conveyed on an endless chain ; or by forming a " Gehenna " at 
some distance from the mill, to which the waste was hauled by 
horses ; the fires of which were never quenched, the smoke from 
the burning darkening the air and making navigation danger- 
ous. 

But the question was solved in the saw-mills that were on the 
great salt-basin. Large nests of boilers were set up for running 
the engines, and in front of them was made a dumping-ground 
for all refuse of the mill, covered and surrounded by cylinder 
boilers, which were connected to the main nest of the tubular 
boilers. The exhaust steam from the engines and all surplus 
steam from the waste fuel was used for evaporating the salt water 
pumped from the wells ; and the once waste product was utilized 
and the expense of taking care of it saved. So great has been 
the saving that a barrel of salt which cost $3.00 fifty years ago, 
lias been sold for 75 cents. Of course, this state of things can't 
always last. When our lumber is finished, we shall have to g-o 
back to using coal for boiling our salt, and compete on equal 
terms with Syracuse, in the market. The Bufl^alo Gazette for 
1825 quotes salt at $3.00 a barrel. 



ADDRESS OF .TAMILS VV. BAKTLETT. 345 



MINING ENGINES. 

I have before me a photograph of Watts' first engine, which 
was used for pumping a mine at Ohlham. It is a cylinder about 
24 inches diameter by 8-foot stroke. The piston is connected to 
a " wolving bob," by two chains running over a segment of a cir- 
cle. Also a drawing of a 6-inch engine, used in starting one of 
the largest mines in the Lake Superior country. I give a list of 
the engines now in use at the Calumet and Hecla mine: 

Compound, 17 in. hii:;li steam, 3(5 in. low steam, 5 fl. stroke. 

2;] ' •■ ;w " r, 

13 " 24 " 4A " 
12 •• 24 " U " 
28 " 48 " 6 

40 " 70 " (i 

Ilitih Pressure 30 4 " 

40 .-) 

IS S 

30 6 

28 ' 4 

14 2 
18 4 

And three small engines, size not given — sixteen in all = to 180 
feet area of one cylinder, 138 inches diameter. They have also 
two steam-hammers for breaking rock, five steam stamps and five 
20-ton locomotives. ' 

UK HAD. 

The raising of grain and preparing it for food is the first neces- 
sity of civilized man, and the improvement wrought in this by 
the mechanical arts, has kept pace with the progress in otlier 
directions. In some parts of the United States the soil is still 
scratched with u pointed stick, drawn by o.xen harnessed by the 
horns, the grain sown broadcast by hand, the crop reaped with a 
sickle, trodden out by oxen, and winnowed by the wind. Maize 
is shelled on a shovel, hulled and softened by boiling in lye-water, 
pulverized with a stone roller, on a matate and baked on a heated 
stone, requiring the constant labor of one or two women to supply 
a family with their daily l)reail, or rather, with their daily tortil- 

' KiigineeriiiK mid Miiiiii;;: .loiiinal. .July I",'. 1884. 



346 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

las. The modern plow is of steel or chilled iron, and is harder 
than the nether mill-stone and polished like a mirror. 

The grain is sown with a drilling-machine, drawn by a horse, 
which digs the hole, drops the seed, and covers it up. The hoeing 
is done by horse-cultivators, and the crop is garnered by a mach- 
ine, drawn by two horses, which reaps, bundles, and binds the 
straw ready for threshing and winnowing. This is done by an 
immense machine, driven by a steam engine, which bags the clean 
grain and stacks the straw. 

The wheat is drawn to the railroad, where it is loaded by steam 
into cars, and carried to the large elevator, which is an immense 
building, capable of storing millions of bushels. Here it is raised 
by an endless chain of scoops, into bins, from which it is weighed, 
shot out into vessels or cars, and transported to the ends of the 
earth. Steam-shovelers unload the cars, and steam elevators 
unload the vessels, and raise the wheat into the mill, to be ground 
into flour. It is ground, bolted, and barreled, by power, and is 
kneaded, rolled, and cut into shape by machines, and baked in a 
revolving oven. It is never touched by human hands until it is 
ready for eating. 

CRACKERS. 

Machine bread and cracker making are largely practiced in the 
State. I quote from a letter from the largest and oldest concern: 

" I am unable to state the exact time the cracker business was 
first established, that is, the old system of hand work ; probably 
before the birth of this State. The first steam cracker bakery 
was established about 1 861 ; and at that time ten bbls. of flour was 
considered a big day's work, and required about seven hands. We 
now have a building 95 by 80, employ 38 hands, 12 machines, 60 
horse-power engine. We manufacture 18,000 bbls. of flour into 
40 different kinds of goods, also 1,200 tierces of lard, several car- 
loads of sugar, and 300 bbls. of molasses." ' 

Other establishments use power in making soft bread, w^hich is 
delivered hot to customers. 

GRIST MILLS — FLOUR. 

The two women grinding at the mill, mentioned in Scripture, 
must have been about the earliest method of pulverizing grain. 
The oldest use of power on record was for driving a grist mill, 

1 Vail & Crane Cracker Co., Detroit. 



ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. BAK1I,I<; IT. 347 

as water-wheels were iu use for this purpose over 1,800 years ago. 
Ox, wind and water grist mills were common in Michigan long 
before the State was admitted into the Union ; and the first use 
of steam there was for grinding grain. These mills and all others 
in America, till about ten years ago, used the upper mill-stone, 
revolving above the nether. But now the whole system is aban- 
doned, and all wheat is now pulverized by chilled iron rollers, 
which, with the help of the middlings jmrifier, make better flour 
than was ever possible with the old process. In the modern mills> 
the wheat goes over and over again, from the top of the mill to 
the bottom, passing from one set of rollers to another, but "from 
the time the grain comes into the mill in cars, to the packing up 
of the fine flour in barrels, through all the processes of sifting, 
cleaning, grinding, purifying, se'parating, etc., everything is 
automatic. No workman touches the product save in the way of 
supervision." ' 

The great flouring mills at Minneapolis consumed last year 
24,000,000 bushels of wheat, and made 5,450,163 barrels of flour. 
The largest flour-mill in Michigan is driven by a compound 
engine, making 750 barrels of flour, by the use of 325 horse-power, 
daily. ' 

SUGAR MAKING. 

The making of sugar, which was formerly confined to the 
tropics, is, by the aid of modern invention and machinery, now 
practiced in the temperate zone, and the cost of it very much 
decreased by the competition of sorghum and beets to the sugar- 
cane, 

I have seen the negro slave at his unrequited toil ; and as he is 
a thing of the past in this country, and must soon be extinct 
among civilized men, 1 take the liberty of describing how he cut 
and ground the cane, and made sugar, without the aid of steam 
machinery, working eighteen hours a day in crop-time without a 
Sunday, under the lash of the mayoral, in Cuba. The cane was 
cut by a gang of negro men and women, with rude swords, and 
heaped in great piles near the mill, which was three wooden roll- 
ers connected to long wooden sweeps. To these many teams of 
oxen, yoked by the horns, were fastened, and as they traveled in 
a circle, the cane was crushed between the rollers, and the sweet 



> Detroit City Mills. > Century Magazine, May, 1886. 



348 Michigan's semi-centknnial. 

juice ran in a trough to the boiling house, and there boiled in a 
train of four kettles, set in brick-work, heated by the refuse cane 
which was spread out to dry after leaving the rolls. 

When the cane juice was boiled down to the sugar point, it was 
dipped out into coolers ; after cooling and crystallizing, it was set 
to purge in long tapering tin cans, with a small hole in the bottom 
end, treated with a layer of damp clay on the top, and the result 
was the hard white sugar, which some of us remember as done up 
in thick blue paper. The drippings from the pans, was the West 
India molasses, from which the Medford rum of our fathers was 
made. 

The steam sugar works of 1S53, which is now in use, had for a 
mill three iron rollers, two and a half feet in diameter and six 
feet long, geared together by pinions ; driven by a twenty-inch 
engine, geared to the rolls twenty to one, by massive gears. The 
cane was brought to the mill and the begass taken away, by end- 
less tables. Boiling down the cane juice was done by exhaust 
steam from the engines, in large vacuum pans, very much below 
atmospheric pressure. 

When partly boiled down, it was leached through high vats, 
filled with animal charcoal, for clarification ; then reboiled to the 
sugar point, cooled and revolved at a high rate of speed in centri- 
fugals which separated the molasses from the sugar. The use of 
steam made sugar-cane culture possible in the southern States ; as 
now the grinding can be finished before the first frost, which ruins 
the cane for sugar. The French revolution was the cause of one 
great good to the world, as the blockade of European ports by 
the English, deprived the people of sugar, and turned their atten- 
tion to providing a substitute ; so now, sugar made from beets has 
largely taken the place of foreign sugars in Europe ; and several 
of the States now manufacture it in large quantities. 

The United States Department of Agriculture publish plates of 
a mill in France, which works up 1,000 tons of beets in a day. 
In one room there are six steam engines, five vacuum pans, and 
endless other machinery; and in another building, there is a large 
cutting-mill and twelve batteries, making a mass of machinery 
seldom seen together. They also publish a description of a mill 
in California, with a print, shewing a pile of 20,000 tons of beets, 
ready for the mill. Large appro))riations have been made by 
Congress, to experiment in sugar making from cane, sorghum and 



ADDRKSS OK JAMKS VV. BAKIT.KTr. 349 

beets ; and the process of niiimitheture is fast changing, and before 
long, temperate climates will furnish their own sugar. 

Several years ago, there were a number of large establishments 
started in the United States, for making so-called grape sugar or 
glucose. Large buildings were erected and tilled with expensive 
machinery. One of these concerns was built in Michigan. 

For some reason the business did not pay ; and the machinery 
has been removed, and the building used for other i)urposes. And 
that has been the case with most of them. 

CANDY. 

In my investigations into the subject of food, I found out what, 
to me, was an astounding fact; that there is made and sold in 
the United States oOO tons of candy a day, which is 109,500 tons 
a year. 

In the great cities there are large factories devoted to candy- 
making, using a large amount of steam power. 

" It is a fact, that within the past, quarter of a century, the 
development of the industry has been very great. The simple 
wants were easily enough supplied by such appliances as are now 
long since passed into disuse, or are used only to supplement the 
more complicated meth()<ls. For instance, there was the old- 
fashioned plan for smooth or j)earled work, operated by a man 
toiling all day long, shaking and moving the pan over a hot tire, 
turning out, at most, from 100 to 'iOO pounds a day. Now, we 
find the revolving steam-pans, a dozen or more in a row, which a 
man and two helpers easily preside over, turning out anywhere 
from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds a day, of finely finished goods." 

Twenty-five years ago there were but two candy works in the 
United States, both in New York city ; but now most of the large 
cities have one or more. The largest in the State is in Detroit ; 
employing when in full blast, about 300 hands. It is driven by 
a fifty horse-power steam engine, which pulverizes the sugar in a 
mill running at the rate of 3,000 turns a minute, beats up the 
material fo r marsh-mallow in enormous egg-beaters, runs a row 
of twenty-four steam pans, kneads, rolls, cuts out and prints the 
material for lozenges, turns series of rollers on which are stamped 
dies, which cut the hard candy into kisses at the rate of bushels 
a minute ; elevates the sugar and other material from one fioor 
to the other; in short, it has a hami in every department of the 



350 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

business. The boilers furnish steam for boiling the stock in great 
copper kettles capable of cooking from 500 to 800 pounds of 
stock, heats the steam-pans, warms hollow tables to keep the mass 
soft while working, heats large drying-rooms in which are stored 
at once 8,000 trays of moulds, formed of corn-starch of various 
shapes, filled with material. In short, without steam-heat, mod- 
ern candy-making would be impossible. 

The most striking feature of a candy factory is the pan room, 
where a dozen or two of these, arranged in a row the whole 
length of the room, are constantly revolving with a lazy like 
motion and a deafening sound. These pans are from four to five 
feet in diameter, made entirely of copper, and revolve on a hollow 
shaft two or three feet above the floor. Tlirough this hollow 
shaft, steam passes to a coil of pipes surrounding the pan, and 
thus the required heat is obtained. Each pan holds from one to 
two hundred pounds of previously formed drops or some kind of 
nut kernel. Melted sugar is put on the revolving contents, 
which, with the heat of the pan, soon hardens to the surface in a 
smooth coating ready for a repetition of the dose. Flavor is 
applied either in the original drop or in the sugar added. 
Lastly, when the required size and fineness of finish are obtained, 
color in a liquid form is applied. This is mostly carmine, as 
nearly all these goods that are colored at all are red. After the 
goods have been thoroughly dried they are put in the waxing 
pan, which gives them a fine glossy finish. 

We now manufacture the finest qualities of candy, which a few 
years ago were all imported from Paris. Any new style got up 
anywhere is immediately duplicated here. There are five factories 
in Michigan ; four in Detroit and one in Grand Rapids; three use 
steam only, and two are run by steam engines ; the product of the 
largest is from eight to ten tons a day ; and about twenty tons a 
day are made in Detroit. 

One of the most prominent candymakers said : " It is a sin- 
gular fact that ^38,000,000 are spent in America for something 
that is of no use to anyone." ' 

TOBACCO. 

Detroit is a great tobacco manufacturing centre, and its promi- 
nence is comparatively recent. But long ago, when the Jesuit 



' Gray, Toynton & Fox. 



ADDRESS OF JAMES W. BARTLETT. 351 

missionaries first settled ainoiiij^st the Hurons, they found the tobac- 
co trade flourishing in our immediate neighborhood. A branch 
of the Huron tribe was called the Tobacco Indians, and lived on 
the other side of the river, along the banks, from the southern 
shore of Lake Huron to Lake Erie. These aborigines cultivated 
the weed and prepared it for market, being the only instance of 
the North American savage east of the Rocky Mountains engag- 
ing in any traffic or raising a crop for sale. When the Hurons 
were exterminated by the fierce Iroquois, these Indians were 
spared, and their name is perpetuated in the town of Wyandotte. 
Tobacco is one of the good gifts that America gave the rest of 
the world. It must fill a great want of mankind, for in less than 
two hundred years after it was first introduced into Europe, it 
was used by every nation and tribe on the whole earth. The 
highest civilization and the lowest barbarism unite in the use of 
this much abused weed. The maledictions of Kings, Popes and 
Emperors did not hinder its progress. It is the one habit that 
conquered the world. I have no means of finding out how much 
is used in the world, but in the United .States the figures are suffi- 
ciently high. 

In 1884 there was numufactured in the States, 19o, 4 3^,604 
pounds of plug tobacco ; 16,579,882 pounds of fine cut ; 45,172,- 
73/ pounds of smoking ; 6,127,230 pounds of snuff; 76,533,371 
pounds of material used in cigars and cigarettes ; total, 252,- 
852,825 pounds, or 126,426 tons. We have also manufactured, 
3,372,982,036 cigars and 920,303,519 cigarettes, a total of 4,293,- 
285,547. 

With the help of our foreign neighbors, to whom we exported 
83 tons, we have smoked and snuffed 65,416 tons, and chewed 
61,0.0 tons of tobacco of our own make. We are increasing in 
its use, for in 1863 we only made 29,000,000 pounds. In 1885 
we made 6.2 times as much, or 180,700,000 of smoking and 
chewing tobacco alone. 

Fifty years ago we purchased our tobacco in the form of plug 
or " pig-tail." It was hard, and required much exertion of the 
jaws to masticate it. The old conundrum, " Why do you chew 
tobacco ? '' 'I'he answer being: " To get the juice out ; " would 
hardly be appreciated by the consumers of the fine-cuts of to-day. 
To get a pipeful ready for the pipe was a long job. It had to be 
shaved fine with a jack-knife, and rolled for a long time in 



352 Michigan's semi-centknnial. 

the palms of the hands; and even then it required lighting and 
re-lighting many times before it was consumed. The old grand- 
mother of the period kept scooping up hot ashes with her pipe, 
from between the andirons and getting a whifl'or two before she 
had to repeat the operation. I acknowledge the smoke was good 
when it was obtained " as no tobacco is really bad, though some 
is much better than others ; " and the old fashioned plug certainly 
had the real seductive poison, all in it, which went just to the right 
place. This went on till some genius appreciating this great 
waste of human muscle, conceived the idea of cutting and shred- 
ding tobacco, by the power of steam, thus reducing it to a con- 
venient form for human use. The idea took at once; and now 
the great factories and palatial mansions around Detroit, show 
how well their labors are appreciated in America, and throughout 
the civilized world. In 1842, George Miller commenced cutting 
tobacco at Detroit, in a small building on Woodward avenue, south 
of Jefferson. The power was a horse, which traveled round a 
sweep in the cellar. 

There were no other works of the kind east of the Hudson river. 
He used a Rodgers machine, the stock being pressed into a cheese 
ten inches square and two feet long, and fed up to the revolving 
knives by sci'ews. From this small beginning started this great 
industry of Michigan; the founders of the tive great factories in 
Detroit being all employed at these works. They are the only 
tobacco cutters in the State, and make over one-eighth of the fine- 
cut, and nearly one-tenth of the smoking tobacco in the United 
States, using large steam engines, and the cutting tools so con- 
trived that it is not necessary to press the stock before cutting. 
They turn out 7,474,916 pounds of manufactured tobacco a year. 

j:)Rinks. 

Fifty years ago the prevailing beverage for an intoxicant was 
New England rum, made from the sugar cane. This has been 
superseded by the extract of our own maize, called whisky. 
Much wine was imported and some ale. There were a few brew- 
eries, which made strong beer. The farmers' wives brewed a 
decoction of roots and herbs, more or less palatable, and small 
beer was for sale in the cities, in heavy stone bottles. These weak 
drinks have been replaced by pop, and soda-water, so-called, 
because there is no soda in it. But all these beveraures are fast 



ADDRESS OF JAMES \V. HARTLETT. 353 

being driven out by lager beer, which is of German parentage, 
but taken kindly to, by the average American citizen. If you 
get high enough to overlook a Western city, you sec two classes 
of buildings towering over the rest, in about equal numbers; one 
set are school-houses, and the others lager beer breweries. The 
lousiness is not forty years old, for the first lager beer in 
Michigan was made in 1850, by Henry Miller, of Detroit ; and 
now there are in Michigan 110 breweries, making 442,500 barrels 
a year. 

There are in the United States, 2,002. If they made as much 
beer, in proportion to those of this State, they would produce 
8,853,500 barrels, or enough to supply the pumps of the Detroit 
water-works nine and one-half days, or ten gallons to every man," 
woman and child in the United States. 

One brewery in Detroit has a capacity of 60,000 barrels a year, 
using two steam engines of fifty horse-power, for grinding malt, 
stirring the mash, and elevating material ; also, three steam 
pumps, aud two one hundred and fifty horse-power boilers for 
running the engines and furnishing steam for boiling the mash. 
They tuni malt, rice, and hops into lager beer and other seductive 
beverages. The percentage of alcohol in this beer is four per cent. 
It is kept six months in cooling rooms at a temperature of thirty- 
three, before it is ready for use. Their stock on hand in March 
was 14,000 barrels of lager, and they use ten tons of ice a day. 

But for all this great increase in the use of lager, it is said 
there is still some whisky consumed in Michigan ; though there 
is no distillery within her borders ; but over the line there is 
plenty of them " that are driven by the diabolical power of 
steam, and with an energy that knows no Sunday." 

ELECTRICITY. 

The terrible power of lightning finds a place in the earliest 
myths, and crops out in mythology ; the thunderbolts of Jove, 
Thor's hammer, the rock«breaker, are types of Supreme power. 

In 1754 Franklin " seized the lightning from heaven," and 
found out something of its nature, and showed how our houses 
could be protected from its power. But it remained a scientific 
toy for over an hundred years ; but now it is degraded to house- 
hold drudgery, going our errands, calling our servants to answer 
the door-bell, and polishing our stoves. In 1837 the first message 
23 



354 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

was sent over a wire, aud the electric telegraph soon became a 
household word. It was immediately adopted all over the world; 
and now there is no spot inhabited by civilized man where he is 
not in instantaneous communication with his fellow men. The 
wires run over mountains and under the oceans, from the Arctic 
Circle to the Equator. 

There are in the United States 162,000 miles of telegraph 
poles; 599,000 miles of telegraph wire; 15,600 telegraph stations. 
There were sent last year 46,300,000 messages, not counting those 
on railroad business. 

There are in Michigan 5,300 miles of poles ; 11,900 miles of 
wire ; 539 telegraph stations. There are in use 1,000 instruments 
in the State. ' 

Ten years ago an electric light was one of the curiosities of the 
Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. Now several cities in 
Michigan use it for street lighting. In Detroit they use the arc 
light, or the spark between carbon points, set up on towers from 
100 to 150 feet high, which beautifully illuminate the roofs of 
our houses. For household use the incandescent light is being 
introduced. It is a wire of carbon in a vacuum formed in a glass 
globe, aud made candescent by the passage of a current of elec- 
tricity. 

Electricity is used as a means of distributing power through 
wire ; and railroad cars have been run in this way ; but at pres- 
ent no economical and practical result has been obtained. The 
current of electricity is excited by magnets revolving at great 
speed between other stationary magnets, driven by steam engines, 
so the result is turning power into light. One horse-power is 
required to furnish the force to run arc light of an alleged 2,000 
candle-power. The best result claimed for coal, oil, and wages of 
engineer and fireman, in running an electric light plant, is nine- 
tenths of a cent an hour per horse-power. 

The Detroit Electric Light Company use five steam engines, 
the total capacity of which is 900 horse-power. They supply 400 
street tower lights and 300 private customers. They estimate 
each light at 2,000 candle-power. 

Solomon said : " There is nothing new under the sun; " and mod- 
ern experience has shown he was wise in his generation. Which 
of our great inventions are really new ? The power of steam was 



A. P. Roberts, The Bell Telephone Company. 



ADDRKSS OF JAMKS W. BARTLE']'!'. 355 

kuowii centuries before the days of Watt ; and many steam- 
boats run before Fulton's time. In Hindostan, there have been 
no power forges in liistoric times; but in the Mosque of Delhi, 
there has been for ages, a wrouglit-iron shaft, so hirge that there 
are but five hammers in America large enough to duplicate it. 
Even the electric telegraph was foreshadowed in the oldest of 
books ; for we read in Job : " Canst thou send lightnings that 
they may go and say unto thee, Here we are ?" 

But as Minerva sprang fully armed from the head of Jove, so 
appeared the telephone. We waked up one morning and found 
it full grown ; and the sound of its halloo was heard all over the 
land. I believe no one ever imagined that human speech could 
possibly ever be heard for miles as distinctly as for feet, before 
this wonder was evolved. 

The wise man of old for once was mistaken. .Starting ten 
years ago, it had in use, January 1st, 18^!6, 101,734 miles of wire, 
134,847 subscribers, and 5,168 employes. 

LEA J) I'ipk. 

The process of making lead pipe has been very much improved. 
The lead was formerly cast in the form of a cylinder about three 
inches in diameter, with an inch bore and about lour feet long; 
and afterwards rolled to the proper thickness, over a long man- 
drill. The pipe was very imperfect and could only be produced 
in short lengths. Now the melted lead is poured into the cylinder 
and a piston forced down into the melted lead by a hydraulic 
press at 3,000 pounds to the inch. The semi-fluid lead is forced 
through an orifice of the proper size around a mandrill, and a 
continuous lead pipe passes out, and is reeled up finished ready 
for shipment. This method furnishes perfect pipe in long lengths. 
The lead in the cylinder is kept at the proper state of fluidity by 
a steam-jacket supjilied with steam from the boiler. 

There is but one lead pipe works in the State, which is in 
Detroit ; and by the use of a ten horse-power engine turns out 
fifty reels of pipe a day, each weighing 180 pounds, which is a 
yearly output of over l,o-")0 tons.' 

.SHOEMAKING. 

We all remember the old-time shoemaker sitting on his low 
bench, with a small collection of awls and knives, lap-stone, ham- 

iE2dward Morris. 



356 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

mer and pair of piucers, cutting out from raw leather, and with 
long-continued labor making a pair of shoes, evolving them out 
of his head " as it were." There are plenty of cobblers to-day 
working with a smiliar kit of tools, but they work only at repair- 
ing, for boots and shoes are now made by machinery. The first 
practical pegging machine was built iu 1857 ; and an enterprising 
shoemaker iu Dauvers, Mass., concluded to start a power factory. 
I set up for him a four-inch cylinder and boiler, and put his works 
in operation, using a three horse-power, with which he run one 
pegging machine. Within three mouths he changed for a six- 
inch engine ; three months more it was changed to an eight-inch, 
and afterwards to a twelve ; and the last time I heard, he was 
running an eighteeu-iuch engine, which supplied 100 horse-power; 
and other factories were started, so in a few years hand-shoemak- 
ing became a thing of the past. " Over a hundred machines have 
been invented for shoemaking, changing the whole course of a 
great industry, and producing great cities."' "Through scores 
of processes, the forty-four pieces of a pair of shoes require, to 
bring them together, the co-operation of fifty men, women and 
children. The result is, you can buy for three dollars what would 
have cost your forefather six." 

To do this, there are used sewing machines that make 600 
stitches in a minute, pegging machines that make and drive pegs 
faster than they could be counted ; machines for sewing on soles, 
that increase the product over hand work from 40 to 600 a day, 
or fifteen times as fast. In 1880 the great factories turned out 
125,478,511 pairs of boots and shoes, a little more than two pairs a 
year, for every man, woman and child in the United States. 

The largest shoe factory in Michigan "employs between 600 to 
700 hands, makes on an average about 1,500 to 1,800 pairs per 
day. Some seasons of the year run as high as 2,000 pairs a 
day.'- 

BRICK-MAKING. 

Brick-making is older than history ; and bricks, being inde- 
structible, are found all over the world. In Scripture we find the 
first written account of an attempted improvement in their manu- 
facture by King Pharaoh, by economizing in straw, thereby 
causing a strike among his workmen, who went out and never 

' Harpers' Monthly, January, 1885. ^ Pingree & Smith, Detroit. 



ADDRESS OF .lAMKS W. nAHTI.K'lT. 357 

came back to work, but emigrated to Palestine uiuler Moses, 
Pressed brick were used when Babylon was building ; and had 
the maker's name stamped upon them. Brick-making then, and 
till thirty years ago, has been a hand trade ; oxen have been used 
to run a mixer for preparing the clay, and the hog's labor is still 
utilized in China by sprinkling corn over the wet clay, which by 
rooting they prepare for use ; this being the only instance where 
the labor of swine has been used by man. 

The first brick used in Michigan for building, was in the Gov. 
Porter House, in Detroit. They were imported from Ohio in 
canal boats, while Michigan was a territory. The size of the 
brick was nine inches long, four and five-eighths wide and two 
and one-quarter thick. The first made in Detroit were made on 
the Woodbridge farm a short distance north of Wood bridge 
grove, and the (juantity just enough for building chimneys. When 
the arsenal at Dearborn was built, Titus Dart started a brick- 
yard on his farm on the River Rouge. Abial and William 
Wood, on the Allen farm, furnished the brick for SS. Peter 
and Paul church and for the first freight house on 
the Michigan Central Railroad. In 1848 John Greusel 
came here from New York, where he had been in the brick busi- 
ness for fifteen years. It was he who first introduced brick 
machinery into Detroit, or the State of Michigan. All brick be- 
fore that were made by hand. The quantity of brick made in 
1848 was not over 3,000,000 ; and this was enough to supply the 
market. Prices were $3.25 to $3.50 per 1,000. Since then the 
brick business has increased to such an extent that at this time 
there are twenty-nine brickyards near Detroit, all of them using 
machinery, and most of them using steam power, and, on an aver- 
age, making 90,000,000 per year, the product being thirty times 
as great as it was eighteen years ago.' 

STOVES. 

In 1836 there were few stoves in use. The crane hung over the 
kitchen fire place, on which were suspended the pots and kettles. 

Meat was roasted suspended by a chain before the fire, and 
turned by the draft of the chimney, or by a dog-power. A class 
of short-legged dogs still go by the name of turn-spits. 

' John Greusel. 



358 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Later, a tin-kitchen so-called, was used. This was set before the 
fire, and the reflection from the bright tin doing part of the cook' 
ing, so the meat had only to be turned occasionally in roasting. 
Biscuits were baked in a cast-iron bake-pan suspended over the 
fire from the crane, the cover had a high rim all around, to be 
filled with coals to equalize the heat. Bread was baked in a brick 
oven, and a set boiler with a fire under it heated the water for 
washing-day. The rooms were heated by wood burned in open 
fire-places. What a contrast to heating by the base-burners of 
to-day, with the mica panes all around to give light to the room, 
and polished and nickel-plated till they shine like silver, and our 
six-kettled cook stoves with large ovens and set hot water tanks ! 
In those days a moderate family laid in eighty cords of hard 
wood. Now the same house is heated and the cooking done by 
twelve tons of anthracite coal, and much better heated than was 
possible before. 

The makingof stoves is one of the great industries of the United 
States, and Detroit is the largest stove market in America, more 
stoves being made there than in any other city in the world. 

Stove-making in Detroit dates back to the year 1857, when 
Jeremiah Dwyer started a small foundry at the foot of Lieb 
street. Shortly afterward a company was formed to increase the 
manufacture.' 

In 1875, they had 200 men at work, and cast from ten to fifteen 
tons per day. Now they employ from 1,000 to 1,250 men, and 
turn out from 225 to 275 stoves per day, a yearly average of 
between 60,000 and 70,000. There are three stove foundries in 
Detroit, which employ about 3,000 men, and produce 125,000 to 
150,000 stoves per year, consuming from 125,000 to 150,000 tons 
of pig-iron yearly. 

These stoves are the best made anywhere, and are sold in every 
State in the Ihiion, and many are shipped to foreign countries, 
and their business increases every year. 

HEATING OF BUILDlNi^S. 

There are numerous methods of heating buildings from a single 
fire. Large furnaces are arranged as near as possible below the 
middle of the building; fresh air is brought in from the outside, 

' L. L. Barbour. 



A1)1)KE88 OF JAMES \V. liAKTLETT. 359 

and after being warmed by passing over the heated iron, is dis- 
tributed through openings in the floors, controlled Ijy dampers. 
Steam boilers are largely used for heating, and the steam carried 
by pipes to all parts of the building, and taken into radiators of 
cast-iron or steam pipe, which give out the heat from the steam, 
and, by a system of small pipes, carry the condensed water back 
to the boiler by gravitation. This method of heating is reduced 
to a very perfect system, the pressure being nearly alike on all 
parts of the building, and very low steam is mostly used, seldom 
over three pounds to the inch. 

The boilers are so arranged that the dampers shut off the draft 
when the steam reaches the desired amount of pressure, and they 
open when the pressure fails. Thus the boilers \vi\\ run for 
several hours without attention, and no labor is required, except 
to shovel in the coal and rake down and carry away the ashes. 

These boilers are so safe that an explosion of any of the thou- 
sands in use has never occurred ; though they are often in the 
charge of inexperienced men or women. The boilers are of every 
form and material, from the ordinary upright and horizontal 
tul)ul;ir wrought-iroii iioiler, to all forms of cast-iron concerns; for 
the pressure carried is so low, even that unreliable material has 
been used without exploding dangerously. Radiators are made 
in every style, and .some are highly ornamental ; many are made 
in the State; one large foundry does nothing but cast one pattern; 
and many large establishments are entirely devoted to heating 
buildings by steam. The largest public buildings are heated in 
this manner, using large nests of tubular boilers. Return-flue 
boilers are .sometimes used, and miles of piping. In some cities a 
central boiler-house is established, the pipes laid under the streets 
and the steam carried for miles, for heating buildings and furnish- 
ing steam for elevators and other power. 

EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 

The houses of the United States being mostly built of wood, 
tires are con.stantly taking place; and means for extinguishing 
them by public organizations were early used. These were vol- 
unteer associations, each member agreeing to keep at his house, 
two fire-l)uckets, a long ladder, axe, bag, and bed-key to be used 
for fire purposes only. The town meeting appointed a fire-war- 
den who had great power. In case of a fire he could compel by- 



360 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

standers to work under his orders under a severe penalty for dis- 
obedience. When fires took place in the woods, teams of oxen 
and plows were collected, to run furrows around the burning, and 
men were stationed along the line with shovels, to dampen the 
fire with sand to prevent its running through the grass and leaves. 
The alarm was given by ringing the meeting-house bell, and every 
good citizen hurried to do his part to extinguish the flames and 
save property. 

Hand-engines without suction- hose were in use in 1836, which 
were supplied by a string of men passing water from the nearest 
pump or stream ; and lines of boys passed back the empty buckets. 

The first improvement was the introduction of suction-hose, to 
draw water from wells, with long lengths of leading hose to 
reach the fire. When water was at a distance, two or more engines 
were stationed in a line, taking water from each other, the last 
playing upon the fire. Engine companies were formed, and the 
rivalry between the different organizations in cities can hardly be 
conceived by the present younger generation. The engines were 
of the most perfect description, with high-flown names, and as 
beautiful as paint and pumice-stone could make them; they were 
manned by from 40 to 100 men, and a race towards a fire was an 
excitement well remembered by those of you who are now over 
fifty years old ; and the washing of a rival tub was a feat to be 
long remembered, and led to black eyes and bloody noses. Great 
riots have taken place, owing to the rivalry between the various 
companies. 

But Siksey has long ago rolled down his pants, and now hardly 
looks up when the alarm bell strikes the number.' 

The first steam fire engine was built in 1840, in New York; 
but such was the opposition by the hand-engine companies, that 
its use had to be abandoned ; but in 1855, others were built, and 
they began to come into use, manned by paid companies. At the 
close of 1875 there were 1,400 in use. The standard engine of 
to-day has an upright tubular boiler two feet eight inches in 
diameter, two steam cylinders from eight to nine inches diameter, 
pumps from four to five inches, stroke eight inches, capacity in 
gallons a minute 900, weight 6,500." 

The fire alarm is sent to the central office from signal-boxes 

> Concord, Mass. '^ Hand-book of modern steam fire engines. 



ADDRESS OF .FAMKS W. BAKTLETT. 361 

placed at the street corners, and bells strike the number of the 
box by electricity. At the first stroke of the bell, the great 
horses rush from their stables to their places by the pole, the 
harnesses drop down upon their backs, the fire is lighted, and the 
men dress themselves, mount the foot-board, and in thirteen sec- 
onds the engine is tearing down the street towards the fire. On 
arriving at the hydrant, thirty seconds more, and the engine is at 
work pumping water under a pressure of one hundred pounds to 
the inch. The men may be all asleep in bed, but if an alarm is 
given from a box three-quarters of a mile distant, three minutes 
is sufficient to get the machine at work on the fire. 

These machines do effective work, throwing two streams through 
900 feet of hose and one and one-eighth nozzles. Then men and 
horses are all in one building which is never left without men 
enough to manage the engine at a fire. Chemical engines, so- 
called, are used, which throw a stream of water highly charged 
with carbonic-acid gas, the pressure of which drives the water. 
They are lighted and drawn by fleet horses, so they can gain time 
on the larger engines ; and a few minutes at the commencement 
of a fire may save a great conflagration. Great extension-ladders 
are used, mounted on heavy trucks, and raised by cranks, by 
which the hose can be safely carried to the tops of the highest 
Ijuildings. Take it all in all, the city fire departments seem to 
have arrived to a high state of perfection.' 

STREET CARS. 

In 1836 there were but fifteen miles of decent inland wagon- 
road in Michigan, though roads were cut through the woods to 
Saginaw and Chicago ten years before. This road started from 
Detroit, and is now the Grand River road. Beyond were only 
Indian trails, by one of which it was possible to reach Chicago 
if a man was a good walker or had a horse. Freight could 
only be carried by packers, pack-horses, or by dog-trains on 
toboggans, in winter. Koads were very soon cut and worked in 
all parts of the State, and travel and transportation were carried 
on in large, covered wagons, drawn by oxen. You can judge of 
the then condition of the roads by riding out in the spring, ofl^ 
the |iavements of our cities. Within thirty years it was the 



> View of Engin6 No. 8, Detroit 1. 



362 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

fashion for ladies to be driven to church in ox-carts in muddy 
weather, as the streets were impassable by carriages. The first 
improvement, after the corduroy roads, were the plank roads, 
with which, to our sorrow, we are well acquainted. Stone pave- 
ments were first laid in Detroit about forty years ago, and vari- 
ous styles of wood pavements have since been tried. Twenty 
years ago the first of the street-car lines were started, which are 
now in general use in the State. Steam-power has been tried and 
abandoned on street lines; but in New York elevated roads have 
been built, on which locomotives are run, and over which millions 
of passengers are carried at a great speed, long trains of cars fol- 
lowing each other every minute. Cable-lines are also in use, an 
endless wire passing round large drums, driven by steam engines, 
draw the cars ten miles an hour. Electricity is being experi- 
mented with, for driving street-cars, but as yet with doubtful 
success.' 

iron. 

Iron was known before written history. The book of Job and 
every Scriptural writing afterward, mentions steel and iron. They 
were also sung by Homer. Iron clamped together the stones of 
the Pyramids, and was cased in brass in Assyria, showing it to 
have been the cheaper metal. Iron is the most universally dis- 
tributed and the cheapest of metals ; but to the savages tribes, to 
whom it has before been unknown, it is the most valuable com- 
modity on earth. In trading with the inhabitants of the Pacific 
Islands, by Capt. Cook, the price of fat hogs was a nail each. In 
1317 the Scots invaded England and carried off all the iron they 
could find, as the most valuable plunder. Iron was passed from 
tribe to tribe in America, long before the knowledge of where it 
came from was known, for when Mackenzie crossed the con- 
tinent he found knives in use east of the Rocky Mountains, that 
had been furnished by the Spaniards on the Pacific Coast, among 
tribes that had never heard of white men ; and iron was buried 
with the dead, as the greatest sacrifice to their memory. In open- 
ing graves in Yucatan, Stevens found a knife, along with stone 
tools and gold ornaments. 

The Romans when they oc(;upied England, built their blast 
furnaces on the hill tops, the winds furnishing the blast through 

« L. Tinker. 



ADDRESS OF JAMES VV. RARTr,ETr. 363 

channels opened to the windward ; but water was early used for 
the purpose. Wood was the only fuel till 1750, and coke came 
into use in 1842, and in 1<S80 one-third of all the pig-iron in 
America is made with that fuel. Thirty years ago the Bessemer 
process of making steel had not been heard of, and the open- 
hearth process for the manufacturing of steel had not been made 
a practical success, or the regenerative gas furnace had not 
been invented. Fifty years ago the American blast turnace 
which would make four tons of pig-iron a day, or twenty-three 
tons a week, was doing good work. It was published as a great 
thing in 1831, that a furnace was building which would make 
1,100 tons of pig-iron in a year. But in 1880 we had one fur- 
nace which made 224 tons a day, and 67,179 tons a year. 

In 1810 we produced 5:],980 ; in 1840, 315,000 ; in 1880, 4,500,- 
000 tons of pig-iron. It was not till 1844 that we commenced to 
roll any other kinds of rails than strap-rails for our railroads. In 
1880 we rolled 1,305,212 tons gross of rails, two-thirds of which 
were steel. In 1880, we made 22 percent, of the pig-iron and 29 
per cent, of the amount of steel made in the world. 

There are in the United States 091 blast furnaces for making 
pig-iron, the capacity of which is 18,600,000 tons, which is enough 
pig-iron to build four solid i)yramids as large as and thirty-two 
times as heavy as that of Cheops, on which 100,000 men are said 
to have worked half a century, and which is the largest structure 
ever raised by human hands. 

There are 438 rolling-mills, having 1,555 trains of rolls, 5,265 
puddling furnaces and 2,782 heating furnaces; thirty-two nail- 
mills with 5,762 machines; twenty-two Bessemer steel works run- 
ning forty-six converters ; eighty rail-mills, and several other 
works for making the finer grades of tools and plate-steel. 

Capacity of the roUin.i^mills 7.()0(),00() tons. 

of the Bessemer works 2,490,000 ' ' 

of other steel works 810,000 " 

Total 10,!)00.00o ' 

If this wore drawn in bars 1 by U inches, enough would be 
made every month to reach around the world ten times, and 
enough over to stock all the iron stores in Detroit. 

One of the greatest achievements of iron machinery is rolling 
over 233 miles of wire bar every day. I quote : "Our rod-mill 



364 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

rolls the steel billets into wire rods ; we take a four-inch billet 
from 125 to 200 pounds weight, and at one heat roll it down into 
a wire rod (five gauge), coiled on a thirty-inch reel, and from 900 
to 1,300 feet long. 

The regular output of the mill is about eighty tons per day, 
although it has gone much higher than that, sometimes almost to 
100 tons." ' 

BLAST FURNACE. 

The first great improvement in making cast-iron was in the use 
of the hot blast, which was invented in England in 1828, and 
introduced into this couutry between 1830 and 1840. The first 
experiments only raised the temperature to 250 degrees, Fahren- 
heit, and the product of the furnace increased about ten per cent.; 
later, a hot blast oven, containing cast-iron arched pipes was 
placed on the top of the stack, and heated by the flame from the 
tunnel head. By this arrangement the temperature of the blast 
was raised to 500 degrees, increasing the product about forty per 
cent. Since 1868 cast-iron stoves of various patterns have been 
used, raising the temperature of the blast still higher, and caus- 
ing greater economy in making pig-iron. The regenerative prin- 
ciple of storing heat is the latest improvement in blast furnaces. 
In this process large masses of fire-brick are heated by the refuse 
gases from the stack, and when heated the cold blast is turned 
through the hot passages and heated by taking up the heat stored 
by the brick while the gas is heating another set of flues. In 
this way a great heat is obtained for the blast. 

STEEL rails. 

The making of steel rails requires a most extensive collection 
of machinery. In the large works the iron ore is smelted in 
from six to eight of the largest blast furnaces, with two regener- 
ating ovens to each ; the molten iron being drawn ott' into ten-ton 
ladles hung on trunnions on railroad cars; these are drawn by small 
locomotive engines up to the converters, into which the hot iron 
is dumped. Air is forced through the metal, at a pressure of 
twenty-five pounds to the inch, burning out the carbon of the 
cast-iron. '^J'he heat of this combustion raises the temperature to 

' Oliver & Roberts Wire Company, Pittsburg. 



ADDKESS OF .lAMKS W. HARTLETT. 365 

the highest degree known in the arts, and entirely decarbonizes 
the iron ; but as steel has a small percentage of carbon, it is now 
mixed with about one hundred and twenty pounds of spigle (a 
highly carbonized iron) to the ton, giving it the proper temper 
for the rails. 

The steel is drawn oft" into a ladle and run into ingots, eacdi 
large enough for three rails, which are carried hot to the bloom- 
ing train, a set of massive rolls, which are run and reversed by a 
pair of engines, which reduces the ingot to the i)roper size for the 
finishing rolls. In some cases the bars are now luted up in an 
iron box with ashes, to remain several hours till the internal heat 
of the bar heats the surface, and the blooms can be rolled into 
rails with no reheating. So the only coal used is that of the blast 
furnace, where the ore is melted ; though in most cases the ingot 
is reheated before passing the blooming train. 

Tlie amount of machinery in a rail mill is enormous; each blast 
furnace having two blowing engines of sixty or more inches diam- 
eter and air cylinder, which deliver air at a pressure of from five 
to ten pounds to the inch. The double engines that supply the 
twenty-five or thirty pounds of air to the converters, have con- 
densing cylinders fifty-four inches in diameter by six feet stroke, 
driving air cylinders sixty-six inches in diameter. The blooming 
train engines are forty-inch cylinders, and the rail-mill engine is 
the largest hitherto built in this country, working on a single 
shaft, being double reversing compound, the high-pressure cylin- 
der being forty-two inches, and the condensing cylinder seventy- 
two inches in diameter. At full speed of 150 revolutions a min- 
ute, they are capable of developing 12,000 horse power. The 
bloom passes through the finishing rolls seven times, and cumes 
out a rail long enough to be cut twice, making three rails thirty 
feet long, weighing 600 ptuinds each. 

The cranes, of which there is a great number, are moved by 
water under a pressure of 300 or more pounds to the inch, which 
also revolves the converters an<l reverses the engines. There are, 
also, numerous elevators to raise ore, coal and other material, and 
the cars for moving stock are drawn by endless wire ropes. Of 
smaller engines there seems to be no end, for cutting, punching, 
and drilling rails, driving machinists' tools, running dynamoes 
for electric lighting, etc. To supply steam for these engines, 
there are nearly 100 tubular boilers, set in rows in the boiler- 
house, from whicli the st(>ani ])ipcs run in every direction. 



366 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

The main feature of the works are the three converters, twelve 
feet iu diameter, rolliug on massive trunnions, which work off ten 
tons of iron each, every blast, or forty-four tons an hour. They 
are charged with molten iron brought from the blast furnace. 
The blast is started and the spout turned upward, throwing a 
roaring column of fire caused by the combustion of the carbon in 
the cast-iron, which burns about fifteen minutes. Then the con- 
verter is turned quarter round and receives its share of melted 
spigle from a cupola; then another quarter turn dumps the steel 
into a ladle set on a central crane, from w^hich it is tapped out 
from the bottom into cast-iron moulds, the whole process taking 
less than an hour ; and the moulds must be emptied and cleaned, 
ready for the next blast. The two other converters are in use at 
the same time, one after another. All together, they get ofl!" heats 
at the rate of 4.4 an hour, making the grandest show of any in 
the iron business. The converters are revolved, and the cranes 
raised, lowei'ed and turned from a pulpit, so-called, where half a 
dozen boys handle the levers that move the great masses of iron as 
though it had no w^eight. It is one of the grandest triumphs of 
machinery. Some weights will give an idea of the magnitude of 
these machines. 

Converters and supports 473,000 lbs 

Rail engine 430,000 " 

Blowing engines 4(34,000 " 

l,;i72,000 " or (i8() tons 

A complete steel rail works requires about 600 men and Irom 
seven to eleven locomotives. Braddock's field rail mill made 
6,000 tons of steel rails in one week (six days and five nights), 
weighing 60 pounds to the yard, 20,000 rails in lo2 hours. This 
is the highest run ever made. 

South Chicago made about 1,760 rails in twelve hours, for one 
day only; average month of 1,20) to 1,500 rails in twelve hours, 
would be considered good running.' 

In a modern blast furnace two tons of ore will make one ton 
of pig iron ; 2,200 pounds of coke will make 2,000 pounds of pis^ 
iron. 

In a cupola, one ton of coke will melt eleven tons of pig iron. 



1 South Chicago Rolling Mill. 



ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. HARTLK'IT. 367 

It takes about 120 pounds of spigle to one ton of pig iron ; 2,200 
pounds of pig iron, melted and blown, will make but 2,000 pounds 
of steel ingot. 

Id ten tons of ingots, 700 pounds is cut ofi' at the blooming 
shears. In heating and re-heating ingots and blooms, about two 
per cent, is burnt off".' 

By the usual process it takes two and a half tons of coal to 
make a ton of bar iron." 

IRON IN MICHIOAN. 

It is reported on doubtful authority, in the census of 1840, that 
there were fifteen blast furnaces in Michigan, all in the southern 
part of the State. Probably most of these were foundries, casting 
pig-iron brought from other States, the total being only 301 tons. 
From 1840 to 1850, no progress, from 1850 to 1860, three fur- 
naces were started, using bog-ore, and they were all in use in 1857, 
but went out of existence before 1860, when Lake Superior ore 
came into use. 

The famous Lake Superior ores, which now furnish more than 
one-third of the iron used in the United States, were first proved 
in a blast furnace in Sharon, Pennsylvania, in 1853, and their 
value was at once recognized. They had been worked into blooms 
at Carp River in 1847. The first blast furnace in Michigan was 
built at Wyandotte in 1855 by Eber Ward, who was the pioneer 
in the iron business in the State. One was started in Detroit in 
1856, and another in what is now the town of Negaunee in 1858, 
all of which arc now in ojjcration. There are now twenty estab- 
lishments running twenty-seven blast furnaces in the State, for 
making pig-iron, with a capacity of 844 tons a day. 

In 1884, the Lake Superior iron mines produced of ore and pig 
iron 2,575,432 tons ; and the copper mines turned out 52,280 
tons of copper. ^ 

In 1865, no American iron was used in Detroit, bar iron and 
boiler plate being all imp(n-ted. In 1860 it began to supersede 
foreign iron, and in 1865 no foreign wrought iron was used, and 
for the last ten years, Scotch pig has been driven out by native 
soft irons. Prices are a good test of improvement in the methods 
of manulacture. In 1855, bar iron cost eighty-four dollars a net 

' G. B. Bartlett. '^ C. H. Buhl. ■' United States Census. 



368 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

ton in New York, and with freight and profit it must have been 
sold at over five cents a pound in Detroit. It is now below two 
cents a pound; boiler plate cost five and a half cents ; a better 
article can now be purchased for two and a half cents ; two inch 
boiler tubes, which sold for thirty-five cents, can now be bought 
for nine cents ; and a keg of nails has been brought from Penn- 
sylvania and sold in Michigan for less than two dollars a hundred 
pounds.' 

The largest, and with one exception, the only rolling-mill in the 
State, has two blast-furnaces of a capacity of 29,000 tons a year, 
twenty-one puddling and twelve heating furnaces, and fourteen 
kuobbling fires, six sets of rolls, for plate mill, bar mill, and guide 
mill, muck rolls, and top and bottom mill. They have an engine 
for each blast furnace, and one engine to each mill, and make, 
when running the twenty-four hours, 100 tons of bar iron, and 80 
tons of boiler-plate. 

I quote from a letter describing the largest tube works in the world, 
situated on the field where Braddock was defeated in 1755. " Our 
location is all that could be desired, we have the most important 
feature of natural gas which has of late given the Pittsburgh dis- 
trict such a decided advantage over other manufiicturing localities 
throughout the country. We own and control three superior gas 
wells, and a pipe line nine miles in length. We employ 3,000 
men every day from January to December ; we work night and 
day excepting Sunday, from one year's end to another. Our annual 
tonnage will amount to about 100,000 tons, and we make about 
80,000,000 to 100,000,000 feet of tubular goods per year. The 
most important departments of our works are as follows: Refine- 
ries, Swedish knobbling. Fires, Forges Rolling Mills, But-weld 
Mill for sizes of tubular goods under 1^ inches, Lap-weld Mill 
for sizes over 1-j inches, inclusive, blacksmith shops, boiler shops, 
kalameining, and galvanizing shops, car[)enter and pattern shops, 
converse lock joint shops, asplialtum enameling shops, and the 
necessary auxiliaries. Througli our yards we have several miles of 
railroad tracks, and three engines of our own, for the rapid 
handling and shipping of goods."* 

On looking over their price list I find they make over 1,400 
classes of goods. 

iC. H. Buhl. 

* Stanley Gardner, National Tube Works Co. W. K. Muir, Eureka Iron Works, 
Wyandotte. 



ADDRESS OF JAMES \V. BAKTLETT. 3f)9 

SAFES. 

" Love of wealth in its various ibrnis, has, from the earliest 
ages, iiiade it necessary to throw about the accuniuhition of those 
who have been successful in obtaining it, etJective safeguards to 
protect it from the devouring flames, as well as from the hands 
of those who always stand ready to appropriate to themselves that 
which is not theirs. The ancients constructed vaults of heavy 
masonry, provided with iron doors, locking with secret springs. 
Also, treasure boxes covered with iron or bronze, and in many 
cases secret receptacles in the walls of their buildings, many of 
which have been discovered in the ruins of cities in the old world. 

"There is now in the National Museum at Naples a portable 
safe or treasure box, taken several years since from the ruins of 
Pompeii, which is probably one of the oldest portable safes iu ex- 
istence. It is thirty inches deep and thirty-five inches wide; the 
walls are two inches thick. It is made of wood, covered with 
bronze, ornamented with raised bronze .figures. It locks with in- 
geniously constructed secret springs, and in its day was no doubt 
considered a safe repository for the treasures and jewels of some 
rich family, against the cunning thieves of that ancient city. 
From that early date till the beginning of the present century, 
little farther progress was made in the improvement of safes. The 
earliest record we find of any effort being made to make portable 
safes fire-proof, as well as burglar-proof, was iu 1801, when iu 
Loudon, Boston, New York and Philadelphia, apparently almost 
simultaneously, it was discovered that coarse grained wood, 
saturated iu a solution of alum, became largely uou-combustible 
and a non-conductor of heat ; and from that date until after the 
great fire in New York, in December, 1835, nearly all the port- 
able safes made either in Europe or this country, were made of 
coarse-grained oak plank, from four to six inches thick, thoroughly 
saturated in a strong solution of alum, to which had been added, 
iu some cases, uric acid. The planks were formed into boxes 
similar in shape to the modern safes and covered inside and out 
with heavy sheet-iron, and in some cases, bars of iron crossing each 
other, forming a sort of lattice-work, were placed upon the out- 
side. This iron was secured to the wooden box with nails which 
had been provided with large cast-iron heads, giving the safe a 
very sul)st.antial look, but adding to it little .jtreugth. Their 
24 



370 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

doors were hung upon very heavy hinges and were locked with 
bolts shooting out from the top, bottom and sides of the door, and 
large key locks. The keys to these locks are a wonder to look on; 
some of them weigh two or three pounds, and the key-holes would 
almost admit a child's hand. These key-holes, however, were 
usually covered by a sliding plate which was held in place by a 
secret spring, the operation of which was supposed to be known 
only to the manufacturer and the purchaser. For about thirty years 
this style of safe was manufactured with slight changes, and many 
of them are in existence to-day. They had some merit in resist- 
ing heat, but the great fire in New York showed their defects ; 
and improvements began to be made." 

The modern safe consists of an outer box of boiler plate and an 
inner box of thin iron or tin, the space between being filled with 
some non-conducting material. Many substances have been tried 
as fire-proof filling, such as sand, ashes and asbestos ; but now all 
reliable safes are filled with water-lime cement, this substance 
having the quality of taking up fifty-three per cent, of water, and 
holding it for an indefinite time in a crystalline form at ordinary 
temperatures, and giving it off in the form of steam, when subjected 
to a temperature of 300 degrees ; and, by the well known law of 
expansion of matter, giving out cold, it will prevent the contents 
of the safe from burning, while any water is left in the lime. A 
curious experiment is shown by putting a large piece of crystallized 
water-lime, which resembles hard limestone, into a smith's forge 
and blowing on it for a long time, till, if it was iron, it would be 
heated red-hot, and then taking out and breaking it in two, the 
outside will be found to be dried white for a quarter of an inch, 
making the outer coating a good non-conductor of heat, thus pro- 
tecting the water inside from evaporation. The inside will be a 
little damp and very cold, and it will bear a high temperature 
for a long time before parting with all its water. 

This quality makes the modern safe fire-proof under the usual 
exposure to the heat of a burning building ; and in no instance 
has six inches of this material been exhausted of its water so as to 
conduct the outside heat to destroy the contents within; and the 
safe would be perfect, if it was not necessary to make the jambs 
of the doors of metal, which conducts the heat into the inner box 
of the safe. 

Formerly, these door jambs and frames were made of cast-iron; 



ADDKKSS UF JAMKS W . IJAKI LK I 1 . I>71 

and to give the necessary strength, they were made from oue- 
(juarter to one-half incli thick, thus giving a large amount of con- 
ductive metal tVoni the outer or exposed portion to the inside of 
the safe. Recently an important improvement has been made in 
this particular. The jambs and door frames of the best safes are 
now made of soft steel one-sixteenth of an inch thick, which 
gives equal strength and reduces the avenue for transmittal 
of heat more than twenty-fold ; and safes of this construction have 
been subjected to great heat by being buried in the burning de- 
bris of a building for weeks, and the contents found uninjured by 
fire. To guard against burglars, an inner chest is made of many 
thicknesses of the best steel, the inner half of the plate being soft 
steel of great tensile strength, while both the surfaces of the plate 
are of highly carbonized steel, which, in tempering are rendered 
exceedingly hard and drill proof These plates are three-eighths 
of an inch thick, and from three to five inches of these plates will re- 
sist noiseless tools for many hours. Each layer is secured to the next 
by separate screws or bolts, so that no holes pass through more 
than three-quarters of an inch of the entire thickness ; in fact, 
no such box has ever been rifled by thieves through the plates. 
The safe lock has gone through many changes since 1836. 

At the world's fair in London in 1851, Hobbs picked the fam- 
ous Bramah lock, and walked oft with $3,000 that was placed 
behind it. Punch called for some patriotic burglar to come for- 
ward and pick Hobbs' lock "for the glory of Old England." 

All key-locks have long been abandoned, the key-holes being a 
too handy receptacle for gunpowder ; and have given place to 
combination locks, which are locked on secret series of numbers, 
the lowest number of combinations being one to a million. The 
only way for a thief to open these locks, is to intimidate or torture 
the cashier till he gave up the secret, or opened the safe for them; 
and several martyrs to honesty, or the love of money, have laid 
down their lives rather than be unfaithful to their trust. This 
danger is now avoided by the use of the "time lock," in which a 
clock, running inside the safe, moves a camb in such a manner 
that the door can only be opened at a predetermined hour. Im- 
mense fire and burglar proof vaults are now in use, having sepa- 
rate receptacles to rent, and fire vaults are built to shelter money 
boxes of enormous strength, sometimes weighing 40,000 pounds, 
and costinu: from S'),000 to >«lo,000. 



372 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Portable safes are made of every style, from a family safe cost- 
ing thirty-five dollars to an immense fire and burglar proof con- 
cern, weighing twenty tons, and costing several thousand dollars. 
Thirty thousand safes a year are manufactured in the United 
States. ' 

There is one safe manufacturing company in Michigan, employ- 
ing 350 bands, making eighty-five varieties of safes, with a capa- 
city of 4,000 safes a year." 

CLOTH. 

It was not very long ago that calico came from Calcutta, India 
muslin from India, Cashmere shawls from Cashmere, nankeen 
from Nankin, carpets from Turkey, and silks from China. The 
teeming millions of Asia made most of the dress stuffs for Europe 
and America. Times are changed now, and the people of those 
countries are now clothed by the products of the looms of ]Man- 
chester and Lowell. At the first quarter of the present century 
wool and flax were spun and woven in most households, and the 
greater and lesser wheels were always in motion. The little flax- 
wheel fell before the cotton-gin and spinning jenny ; the larger 
wheel may still be found by the curious at work spinning stock- 
ing yarn ; but its day is past. Ten cotton spinning factories, 
which made warp for hand looms, were started before 1814, on 
which year the first weaving mill was built at Waltham, Massa- 
chusetts ; but so slow was the progress of the art, that in 1837 
they had but two crank looms, and the beaters were driven up 
with cambs. Such has been the increase of the business in fifty 
years, that one city yearly turns out 250,000,000 yards of cotton 
cloth, 1,300,000 yards of woolen goods, and 3,120,000 yards of 
carpets ; and the mills of the United States furnish 2,300,000,000 
yards of cotton cloth. The elaborate carpets, shawls, ribbons, 
laces, silks and pattern goods, are now woven by power, and sold 
at prices far below the prices of 1836, as many of you remember 
calico at fifty cents a yard, which can now be bought for ten 
cents. 

Forty years ago one of the largest items sold by our druggists 
was dye-stuffs, and fulling mills were in every town ; but now 
Michigan makes less than one per cent, of the woolen goods of 

' D. O. Paige. '■' Detroit Safe Company. 



.\I)1)up:ss of .tamks w. iiAKiMnr. 373 

the country. We spin considerable yarn and have knitting mills 
at Pontiac, St. Joseph, Centerville, Ypsilanti, Detroit and other 
places. The largest runs 400 machines, with a sixty horse-power 
engine, uses 2,500 pounds of yarn a day making stockings, 
mittens, tippets, German socks, etc. They can make 1,000 dozen 
stockings a day. ' 

PHARMACEUTICAL. 

But in one direction, Michigan has, in a few years, placed her- 
self far in advance of the world ; for Detroit manufactures at 
least half of the pharmaceutical preparations, and three-fifths of 
the pills made in the United States ; and twelve years ago the 
business, as it is now carried on, was practically unknown. Now 
two great factories, using every variety of machinery, have so 
improved the quality and lowered the cost of these preparations, 
by working on such an immense scale, that they are fast supplying 
the world. Besides supplying the United States, Canada, Mexico, 
Central and South America, they make great shipments to every 
part of civilized Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, and even 
trade largely in Central Asia, China, Japan, Corea, New Zealand, 
Feejee and other islands in the Pacific ; and all this is legitimate 
business, in non-secret remedies, no so-called secret or proprietary 
medicines being now made in the State. 

" The practice of pharmacy dates from a very early period, and 
the improvements which have been wrought are many. It is not 
difficult for many persons now living to recall the custom of 
physicians in the early history of this country to supply their own 
medicines, and to prepare many of them from the botanical drugs 
which probably were gathered by their own hands. The ' herb- 
doctor ' is not an unknown individual to-day in some sections; 
but the duties of the pharmacist are quite clearly defined in the 
present age ; and it is his mission to supply such medicines as the 
medical profession demands and to make such improvements as 
his knowledge and experience will admit." The origin of the pill 
is unknown to the writer. It is one of the first things we hear of 
in this world, and frequently one of the last. It was customary 
for a long time, and to the present day this is largely practiced, 
tliat the physician made his own pills, mixing the ingredients in a 
mortar, rolling them and cutting them on an old pill-tile, by the 



>Rush Brothers, Detroit. 



374 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

aid of a spatula. As trade increased, the apothecary would pro- 
vide himself with a pill-raachiue, which would enable him to roll 
the mass into pipes or cylinders more rapidly and more uniformly, 
and to cut them much more readily ; but when these disagreeable 
and nauseous medicines were prescribed in this uncoated form, the 
patient could not but object ; and for this reason the reputation of 
pills became somewhat clouded, and the skill of the pharmacist 
was called upon to overcome these objections. At the present day 
pills are manufactured mostly by large manufacturers. It is not 
unusual for him to make several millions of one kind ; and by 
these extensive operations he is able to ensure uniformity in size, 
can produce them much more perfectly, and at greatly reduced 
cost. 

Besides this, he adds a coating, usually of sugar or gelatin, 
although many other substances are employed, and this coating 
so completely disguises the ingredients of the j)ills that they are 
swallowed with no more difficulty than a piece of confectionery. 
For the manufacture of pills there are many machines in use. 
The sugar-coating is done in large, revolving pans, the same as 
are used by the confectioners. The process of gelatin coating, 
which has come into general use in the last decade, one hundred 
or more pills are dipped in gelatin at one operation ; the bars 
with the wet pills attached are placed under currents of warm 
air. The "mass" is a very important item in the process. Par- 
ticular care is necessary in weighing the materials, in the selection 
of the proper excipient, and in the thorough mixing of the two 
into a mass. 

" We cannot give you statistics as to the number of pills man- 
ufactured in this country. It is customary with us to keep an 
account of the pills we make by count, rather than by weight; 
and we expect that our output this year will amount to over 
300,000,000 pills. This would, at even figures, provide six pills 
for each man, woman and child in the United States.'' There 
are probably four hundred tons of pills made in the States, of 
which Michigau furnishes ihree-fifths. 

" There is a line of goods on the market, known as empty cap- 
sules, which have an enormous sale, and which are comparatively 
new. They are used principally by the retail druggists, as cov- 
ering or vehicle for the plain pills which they manufacture. We 
dispose of several thousand gross of these boxes of one hundred 



ADDRESS OF JAMES W. BAKTLETT. 375 

capsules each, 100,000,000 capsules aunually ; and the consumption 
is on the increase. They are of all sizes, from the little one of one 
grain capacity, to the large one holding one and one-half ounces," 
the largest for veterinary use, being one inch in diameter by two 
and one-half inches long. They also furnish soluble elastic cap- 
sules, filled with nauseous medicines and tightly sealed, making that 
horror of our childhood, castor-oil, a luxury, and the swallowing 
of the disgusting oil of cods' livers, as pleasant as eating oysters, 
the dose being seven-eighths of an inch in diameter by two inches 
long. 

"Our business is based principally upon botanical drugs, from 
which we make fluid extracts, powdered extracts, concentrations, 
alkaloids, etc., etc. ; many of these are consumed in pills; but 
more are sold or used in other forms. To carry on these several 
branches, more knowledge, more capital, and more extensive 
machinery are required than to make pills; considerable power 
and plenty of free steam are necessary. Our milling department 
has to be fully ecjuipped to grind everything, from a simple leaf 
to a root as tough as iron wood. To exhaust from these ground 
drugs their medicinal properties, are required large vats, percola- 
tors, powerful hydraulic presses, evaporating pans, stills, con- 
densers, etc., etc. Many of the processes are not free from danger, 
and more require a skilled hand to guide them successfully. 
Accompanied with these we have to deal at all times with the 
possibility of a serious, if not fatal, error in this business of * eternal 
vigilance.' Fluid extracts are produced from the drug by per- 
colation of alcohol through the drug, the extract being so concen- 
trated that one minim, or so-called drop, equals one grain of the 
drug; they will keep indefinitely, taking the place of numerous 
liquid preparations now obsolete, such as water infusions, teas, 
etc." 

The evident advantages of fluid extracts have proved so great 
that the uses of them have become enormous, and the amount of 
skill applied and machinery invented for their manufacture is 
very great. The factories built seven years ago have been doubled 
in size, and are now overcrowded; and they do not supply human 
wants alone, for last year one concern turned out 450 tons of 
iininial medicine.' 



From iiif<irmatioii fiirriislind by Frederick Stearas and Parke, Davis & Company. 



376 Michigan's semi-centennial. 



A NEWSPAPER. 

The newspaper has become a necessity of our daily life. Break- 
fast without it would be a mockery. It is served out hot, by day- 
light every morning, and we are not satisfied without five edi- 
tions of the evening papers. The progress of printing is well 
illustrated by the progress of a paper, the publication of which 
antedates the admission of the State into the Union. Starting 
in 1833 as a weekly, and changing into a daily in 1835, it has 
lived till to-day, and who knows that it may not last till the next 
semi-centennial ! 

" The publication of a daily paper in a quaint little French 
village of the Northwest, containing less than 6,000 inhabitants, 
destitute of railroads, with uncertain mails, and the telegraph 
unheard of, might well be noted as extra-hazardous." 

From 1831 to 1846 the several editions of the paper were 
"worked off" on a Washington hand-press, the motive power 
being a stalwart "Jour." who manipulated the sheets and 
" pulled the devil's tail," while a diminutive imp, the " printer's 
devil," inked the type previous to each impression. A good 
pressman could print a " token," or 240 sheets an hour, on one 
side, and a daily edition of 1,000 would require about nine hours 
press-work. It may be imagined that their daily circulation was 
somewhat limited. At the latter year, finding it necessary to 
increase their capacity for press-work, they procured a drum 
cylinder power press of R. Hoe, of New York. This was the first 
power press used west of Buffalo, and upon it were printed the 
session laws of 1845. Though called a power press, it was run 
by men turning a crank, and it w-as used for printing the daily till 
1859, when it was superseded by a small cylinder three revolu- 
tion Hoe press, known at that time as the " lightning press." 

With the advent of railroads and improved steam navigation 
on the lakes, the i)opulation of Michigan had greatly increased. 
The telegraph (that great right hand of the daily press), had 
included in its net-work of wires every important town in the 
State. 

With increased facilities for the receipt and transmission of 
news, the circulation of newspapers increased. Then came the 
civil war and tlie rush to the front. Nearly every family in Mich- 
igan had its representative on the various battlefields from 1861 



ADDKKSS OF JAMKS W. BAKILETT. 377 

to 1865, and every item of " war news'' was watched for, seized 
and devoured with feverish interest. No effort was spared by the 
paper to meet this demand, and its circulation increased so rap- 
idly that in 1861 a double-cylinder Hoe press and steam folding- 
machines were started, and with both presses running night and 
day, they were enabled to supply their patrons promptly, and con- 
tinued to do so until 1873, when a Bullock perfecting press and 
Scott folder were placed in the press-room. This press, with the 
addition of an improved " Clause " folder, was used for printing 
the several editions of the paper until 1884, when they placed in 
the press-room a second Bullock press and folder, with all the 
latest improvements. These presses are now constantly at work 
employed in printing its various issues ; and the little backwoods 
daily of fifty years ago has now an average daily edition of more 
than 20,000 copies. Two engines drive the shafting on three 
floors, as well as the powerful dynamos which furnish electric 
lighting from basement to roof Thirteen job presses of various 
])atterns jirint a variety of work, from a business card to a mam- 
moth theatrical show-bill. They have also a large electrotype 
foundry, to which is attached a wood engraving department, the 
whole being a striking contrast to their small beginnings fifty-five 
years ago.' 

NEWSPAI'HK PKINTrNO. 

Hand-made paper was in fiat sheets ; and when power paper- 
machines, which left the paper in rolls, were introduced, the 
printer, following his old custom of using flat type, required the 
paper cut into sheets of the proper si/e, before printing. All 
printing presses before 187<) worked on single sheets; and the 
" Hoe" machine is an immense affair, many men being required 
to feed in the paper, sheet by sheet. 

About 1863 some innovator hap])cned to think that paper might 
as well be printed right from the roll, and then cut off; and so the 
whole method of fast printing was changed, tor the modern press 
takes the paper from the roll and delivers newspapers folded, 
ready for delivery. These presses have two printing rolls, the 
length of two papers, each having a duplicate set of type, and 
each roll prints two copies of one side of the paper. After pass- 
ing the type, the long strip of p:i|i( r i> cut lengthwise and cross- 



' From information fiiniislied by the Detroit Free Press. 



378 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

wise, before it conies to the folder, making two distinct papers, 
and the folder doubles, cuts, pastes, and doubles again, and 
20,000 newspapers ready for the carrier boy drop from the 
machine an hour. The type-rolls being twenty-four inches in 
circumference, so the paper passes through the press at the rate 
of 3oo feet a minute, or over 0.87 miles an hour. Type set in 
the usual manner are printed on a soft thick paper, which is fitted 
inside of a half segment of an iron cycliuder, a core is adjusted in the 
centre, leaving a space of about % of an inch between the paper and 
the core, which is filled with melted type metal, making a stereo- 
type of one-half of the paper, four pieces being cast and squared- 
up by a simple process, they are fastened to the rolls ready for 
business. This can be done very quickly, for two sets of papers 
can be printed and the circular stereotype plates cast and 
adjusted to the machine, ready for work in less than an hour. 
Therefore the news that arrives within an hour of going to press 
can be printed ; when hourly editions are wanted, a new plate is 
cast and fitted to the machine with very little delay. These 
machines take up little room, and not much power to drive them.' 

FIGHTING TOOLS. 

In 1861 the people of the United States were called from their 
usual avocations to go to war. They were green in the business 
and had few arms, and those old-fashioned and superannuated; so 
the machinists went to work to make fighting tools; having no 
plans, they had to evolve their ideas from their own consciousness. 
In place of the old muzzle-loaders came the breech-loader, and 
multiple charge guns ; and revolvers came handy for close work. 
Cannon were to be made, and foundries built to cast them in ; but 
we soon had sixteen and twenty-four inch cannon. Iron began to 
take its place in fortification, for the barbed wire fencing was at 
once utilized as an abattis and proved an awkward one to break 
through. River boats were made bullet, and tolerably cannon 
ball proof, by railroad iron and other plating; even the protec- 
tion of chain-cables, hung over the sides of ship^, was success- 
fully used, and made harmless many a hostile shot. But the 
crowning result of the labors of the mechanical engineer was the 
fighting-machines called Monitors, which were so well protected 



> Buffalo Express. 



ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. BAKTLETr. 379 

that though exposed to the fire of the heaviest artillery then in 
use, they were perfectly shot-proof. Some of them now bear the 
marks of nearly 400 shot, many of them from guns of ten-inch 
caliber, not one of which did any damage, excei)t to paint. 

They are the only iron-clads that have ever been successful in a 
sea-fight with an iron-clad; and every opponent they met was 
driven off, sunk or captured. The last sea-fight on the coast of 
Peru, was between a monitor and an English built iron-clad, in 
wiiich tlu' monitor came out ahead. Everything in these vessels 
is worked by steam ; the anchor is hoisted, the engine is driven, 
the turret is turned ; the engineer with a reversing lover in his 
hands points the great guns, steam closes the port shutters, and 
drives the blowers that supply the air to the crew and for the 
boilers, which are all below the water line. They are as much a 
machine as a locomotive is, and have neither the form nor the 
semblance of a ship. Instead of riding over the waves, the waves 
go over the vessel ; and yet they are sea-worthy, one of them 
making a cruise round the world. 

After laying up for twenty years, a crew was ordered to take 
one of the monitors to sea. The papers called them floating 
coffins, and censured the Navy Department for risking men's 
lives by sending them to sea in such a craft. Mothers wrote to 
their sons, asking them to resign their commissions, rather than 
to risk their lives so foolishly. Some petty officers were sud- 
denly taken sick about that time. 

An engineer in charge of fitting the craft for sea, told me 
there was nothing to do, except to clean off the tallow and white- 
lead from the bright work, oil up, get on steam and start. They 
were all ready for service after twenty years of rest ; and we all 
remember what service they did in time of need. They maN' have 
been superseded by more modern iron-clads ; but a fleet of such 
machines, tlirowing sixteen-inch shot, would bi' an enemy not to 
be despised. In the last war we built many wooden vessels that 
did good service; one of which, the Kearsage, is the only steam 
craft afloat, that ever fought a sea-fight on equal terms, meeting 
off the coast of Franci' an English built and armed steamer, 
manned by Englishmen, making short work oi' sinking her, and 
receiving no serious damage herself Such iron-clad vessels, so 
invidnerable against ordinary projectiles, have one weak spot, as 
Achilles after being dipped in the River Styx, was proof against 



380 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

hostile spears and arrows, everywhere except in the heel, so these 
sea turtles would succumb to a wound below water ; one of them 
being sunk in Charleston harbor by a sub-marine torpedo-boat, 
the crew of which shared the same fate as their victims. Against 
a fleet of torpedo-boats, running at great speed, capable of ex- 
ploding a charge of gun-cotton six feet below water, and manned 
by " men that dare to die," the strongest armored leviathan would 
be in danger. Though we have at present no use for such ma- 
chines, experiments are constantly being made, and various forms 
of torpedoes tried, some to set in the channels, to be exploded by 
electricity, when an enemy is passing over ; others, driven by 
compressed air, are guided by* electric wires from shore. I hope 
it will be after our day, before we have to prove their efficiency 
in actual use, as one war is enough in a generation ; but the 
maxim, " in time of peace prepare for war," is old, if it is not 
good.' 

HOUSE-WORK. 

Mechanics have made great changes in the farm and household. 
Compare the present plows, shovels, hoes, forks, etc., with those 
we remember to have used when we were boys. 

Hay is now cut by a horse-mowing machine, instead of the 
scythe, and raked, loaded and moved away by horse-power. 
Instead of the sickle and cradle of our fathers, horse reapers and 
binders have come into use, and steam threshers and winnowers 
have taken the place of flail and crank winnowing-machine; even 
our potatoes are now dug by the aid of the horse. A man can now do 
three times as much work as he could fifty years ago. With our 
stoves and the improvements in the construction of our houses, 
our rooms can be heated and our food cooked with one-fourth the 
wood formerly used in the old fire-places; and the sawing and 
splitting are done by steam-power, instead of a man breaking his 
back over a saw-buck, or blistering his hands on an axe-helve. 
In towns, coal has superseded wood for fuel ; and hot air furnaces 
and steam boilers heat our houses, and gas-stoves do our cooking. 
Water is brought into our houses and distributed hot to our bath- 
rooms, and the slops carried away in tight pipes to the sewers; 
hand pumping, and trips to the spring or river for water, and the 
sink-spout and its filthy puddle, are things of the past. House 

> F. B. Bartlett, U. S. N. 



ADDUKSS OF JAMES \V. liAinLKTT. 381 

fixtures, such as hinges, door-knobs, locks and \vin(h)\v fastenings 
are much improved; furniture is strong and light and of great 
variety ; window glass is now to be obtained in large panes, and 
does not distort the image of things seen through it. We have 
electricity to ring our door-bell and guard us from burglars, and 
the telephone to go our errands. 

The old-time farmer worked early and late. He went to May- 
Training, Fourth of July and Muster. He kept Sunday, Fast-day 
and Thanksgiving idle, and always went to Town Meeting ; and 
when it rained so hard that no outside work could be done, he 
went fishing as a matter of business, not to found a romance on ; 
and if he hunted, it was for meat or pelts. As bad as he hated 
waste, and as well as he loved money, he would go to meeting 
twice a day on Sunday, on a good hay-day, after a long rain, and 
never lift a pitch-fork, though he had tons of hay down and 
spoiling. 

His books were few, the Bible, the almanac, and if he lived in 
New England, Fox's Book of Martyrs were in every house; but 
he kej>t his boys and girls in school three mouths in the year. He 
was his own house builder, blacksmith, shingle-maker and shoe- 
maker ; and he slaughtered his own cattle, and killed his own 
hogs and smoked their bacon. 

HOUSE WORK — WOMEN. 

But one thing the advance in the arts has done, of more import- 
ance than anything else. It has reduced the necessary labors of 
women. They think now their work is never done; but in old 
times it never could have been finished. The women of half 
a century ago, lived in cold houses, slept in cold rooms, and cooked 
over open fires in great fire-places, baked their bread in brick 
ovens, boiled their meat and potatoes in pots and kettles hanging 
from the crane, or fried them in spiders, set on the coals ; meat 
to be roasted was hung by a string in front of the fire and turned 
and basted continually. The fire had to be banked up at night, 
for if lost, sparks had to be struck with a flint and steel, and the 
tinder-box was on every kitchen mantel-piece. The use of friction 
matches has done away with any amount of labor, and tliere were 
no matches fifty years ago. And they literally sat in darkness, 
for the whule-oil lamps and tallow-dijis only made the dark- 
ness more visihlf. What a nasty jnli it was to melt tallow in 



382 Michigan's semi centennial. 

the great kettle and clutter up the house dipping candles, getting 
the wicks strung on sticks, and dipping them into the hot fat, 
hanging them between chairs to cool, and then dipping them over 
and over again, till the kitchen-floor was slippery with grease! 
And then came the horrors of soap-making, with its leach-hogs- 
head, caustic lye and foul smelling soap-grease, the dirty labors 
of bog killing time, with its sausage-meat to chop and hog's cheese 
to be made, pig's feet to be pickled and all the lard to try out ; 
and then the turkeys and chickens to be picked and cleaned. 
Pork and beef must be salted down for summer eating and fruit 
preserved for winter, roots and herbs hung up for sickness, and 
barrels of cider boiled down to pailfuls for apple-butter. Then 
the flax for warp must be spun on the little wheel ; and the woolen 
filling on the greater wheel, the loom set up, and cloth for clothing 
the men-folks, women and children, was slowly woven, and then 
made up for the family, without the aid of a sewing-machine. 
Patch-work must be made, not for beauty, but to save every scrap 
of cloth for bed-clothes; and then came the never-ending task of 
spinning and weaving linen sheets and table-cloths, and under- 
clothing, and no end of blankets and coverlids ; and to fill up 
the spare time, stockings must be knitted and darned, and the fam- 
ily mending kept up from week to week. Then the milk must be 
taken care of all the year, and butter and cheese made, and the 
milking done in haying-time. With all these duties, she never 
did outside work on the farm ; that was men's work ; and she drew 
a line there. And all the time, three meals a day must be got; 
the dishes washed, the pewter plates polished, the floor swept and 
sanded. 

Washing-day came every Monday, when the boys must be scolded 
into bringing soft water from the brook, followed by the ironing 
day, when the irons were set to heat between the andirons, in 
front of the kitchen fire. Once a week the front parlor shutters 
must be opened, and the best set of furniture dusted, and shut up 
again ; and every Sunday morning the children must be washed, 
dressed and made to put on shoes and stockings, and everybody 
must ride to meeting, and sit in the cold pew if in winter, only 
mitigated by the foot-stove filled with coals from a neighbor's 
fire. 

Our mothers and grandmothers had little time for German les- 
sons and high teas. It was a struggle for existence ; and in the 



ADDRESS OF .TAMKS \V. HAKII.KTT. 383 

old grave-yards the tombstone of the men often had for corapauy, 
cue or more older stones, sacred to the memory of his former con- 
sorts. 

('HII-DltKN's IT, AY. 

Men and women change, bnt nothing is .><o conservative as a 
child. In digging tlic bone-caves tor the remains of the pre-his- 
toric man, who hunted the tiger and hippopotamus in England 
before the great Ice Age, and among the later race of Esquimaux 
who lived at the foot of tlie glaciers in Central Europe, w'e find 
among the arms and ornaments of the primitive man, the play- 
things of children, their dolls, model canoes and other toys ; and 
no doubt when our Arian ancestors started from Central Asia to 
overrun and conquer the world, the boy of the period had his 
pockets stuffed with marbles, and at every halting place got up a 
game of three-old-cat, or if the horde was large enough, a game 
of rounders, with as much interest as we now have in a league 
game of base ball, the modern form of that amusement. At the 
Centennial iu Philadelphia, there was to be seen an old bronze 
Greek statue of a shinty player with' his crooked stick; and no 
doubt the cry of "shinney on your own side" has been shouted in 
all languages, from that day to this, and the old Roman and the 
modern Scotchman pitched the discus or quoit. 

The Indian game of lacrosse has been refined into lawn ten- 
nis; and the cat of to-day is shown on the Harlem tapestries, 
worked at the time of William the Conquerer. Who sets the 
season for boys' games? Why must marbles be played on the 
first dry land after the snow leaves in spring ; or ball and foot- 
ball in the heat of summer 'i Why cannot kites be flown in the 
gales of March, instead of in the calms of iVugust? and why are 
peg-tops of no value in any month but June? If the old man of 
to-day wishes to renew his youth, let him go to the circus, he will 
see exactly the same feats, and hear identically the same jokes as 
were in vogue fifty years ago. 

Few or none of the games we now play, are new. Chess, the 
most complicated of all games, has been played from time im- 
memorial in Western Asia, and in 1822 Cochrane found it uni- 
versally known among the half civilized tribes of Siberia. Cards 
and dice are hundreds of years old. Pope in "The Rape of the 
Lock," gives a good description of the game of whist, which is 
still played among us by children of a larger growth ; and no peo- 



384 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

pie so savage that gumblingis unknown amongst them. Though 
the games are old, modern mechanics have constructed more per- 
fect implements with which to play them. The old jack-stones 
are now iron castings ; the shops are gay with life-like dolls ; 
turned base ball bats are sold by the cord, along with perfectly 
made balls, gloves, spiked shoes and masks. Lawn tennis rac- 
quets are \vorks of art; and playing cards are wonderful for their 
finish. Large manufactories with ingenious and costly machin- 
ery are employed in making the various playthings. 

THE bicycle. 

One of the greatest triumphs of modern mechanism is the 
bicycle, being a most ingenious combination of steel, brass and 
India rubber with a wheel from 50 to 60 inches in diameter, and 
weighing from 23 to 55 pounds, the lightest being for racing, the 
average roadster weighing 45 pounds, and capable of carrying a 
man over country roads. 

The embryo machine was used about fifty years ago, and con- 
sisted of two wheels connected by a bar across which the rider 
straddled, shoving himself with his feet. This was followed by 
the velocipede, with two nearly equal wheels, between which the 
rider sat and worked the machine by a set of cranks with his feet. 
Now the rider sits directly over the large wheel, working his 
feet downwards, on either cranks or levers, therefore using his 
weight to great advautage. They are much used for pleasure or 
business, there being in use in some of our small cities from 700 
to 1,000. They are a great convenience to their owners. A 
young man writes: " We have gone from Detroit to Pontiac, 
and 14 miles beyond (40 miles), visited five hours, and returned 
home the same day. I have also made over 100 miles between 
sunrise and sunset." The bicycle seems a mechanical paradox. 
With its aid a man can accomplish more, with less exertion of 
his muscles than in any other way. He can outstrip the fastest 
horse, and tire out the strongest runner, and still carry wdth liim 
a machine weighing over forty pounds. The performances on 
these machines seem incredible. Few horses have ever traveled 
twenty miles in an hour,. but this is not an uncommon feat on 
a bicycle. No horse dreamed of getting over 281 miles of 
ground in twenty-four hours ; but this has been done on one of 
those machines. For a single mile the horse made the highest 



ADDRESS OF JAMES \V. IJAKTLETT. 385 

speed ; for a mile has been trotted in 2 minutes, 8i seconds. Run- 
ning horses have made their mile in 1.40, and the highest speed 
of a bicycle is 2.25, but as this was made from a stand-still and 
the horse had a flying start, the difference is slight. The nearest 
approach to their speed by man is the skating one mile in 3 min- 
utes and 20 miles in 1.14. The fastest time a man has ever made 
on foot was a mile in 4.16^, and 10 miles in 57.26. 

But it is in endurance that the bicyclist exceeds any other 
traveler; for in racing, at the eleventh mile he passes the fastest 
running horse, and he has made 100 miles in 5.51, three hours 
quicker than the horseman gets over the ground. The longest 
distance in a "go-as-you-please race" made in six days, is 610 
miles, against a record of 1,009 miles in the same time by a 
bicycler. 

Since the foregoing was written comes the report that the record 
has been broken, and that a bicycler has made 300 miles in less 
than twenty-four hours. 

THE PHOTOCiRAPII, SEWING MACHINE, ETC. 

Many things which are as "household words" to us, were 
absolutely unknown to our fathers. The daguerreotype not 
being fifty years old, which was followed by the ambrotype, a 
picture on glass, the photograph being in use in 1853, and the 
dry plate came in three years ago. Nothing is so universal as 
the j)hotograph. Every family has a picture gallery, and the 
photograph album is on every parlor table. One of the oldest 
men in the business has taken over a million and a half of 
pictures. Copies of all the famous pictures, and photo- 
grai)hs of the famous statues and buildings, are for sale; 
and instantaneous views are taken of crowded streets, of 
horses at full speed, and of cannon balls just leaving the gun ; 
draughtsmen multiply drawings by this process, and photographs 
of machines are sent out as samples. The explorer of new coun- 
tries carries his box of dry plates, and brings back pictures of the 
scenes and inhabitants of strange lands ; even the rock temples of 
Pctrea, and the interior of the Pyramids are now shown by the 
magic lantern. With one exception; we have views of all the 
famous buildings and nunes on the face of the earth ; and we 
hope before long some fearless followers of Burton will bring us a 
25 



386 Michigan's sp:mi-centennial. 

sun-picture of the holy Caaba of Mecca, that forbidden city, that 
is death for a Christian to enter. 

The coolest thing in photography was done when the Proteus 
was crushed by ice in Smith's Sound, up in the Arctic regions, a 
few miles from Cape Sabine, where most of the Greeley party 
spent their last winter. A young man who had charge of the 
chronometers had a dry-plate machine with which he was con- 
stantly practicing. 

In the morning he took a view of the vessel becalmed ; a few 
hours after, the ship being in danger by the closing together of 
the ice, all hands were ordered to leave the vessel. He took his 
chronometers to a place of safety on the ice, noted the time on his 
book, and took a view of the ship just as she was being crushed 
by the ice. Five minutes after he noted the time of the vessel's 
sinking, and ran up and took a photograph of the hole through 
which she sunk. These views were published with his testimony, 
in the report of the investigation that followed. 

SUNDRIES. 

That emancipator of woman, the sewing-machine, is not forty 
years old. I remember of hiring a room in the shop in which I 
worked, and with a few tools, and one good machinist, turning out 
the first dozen that were ever sold. The industry has been car- 
ried on in great establishments, and 1880 building nearly fourteen 
million dollars worth of machines. The latest of these machines 
will make "-?,000 stitches per minute. 

The birch broom of our mothers has been superseded by one 
made from the tassels of the broom-corn ; and within thirty years 
the carpet-sweeper has found a place by our fire-sides. 

The changes of fashion in dress have built up and ruined great 
industries. Twenty-five years ago a lady's dress was built in the 
form of a pyramid, tapering from the peak of the bonnet dowu 
to a base four or more feet in diameter. To form this immense 
structure, great factories were built, to flatten the steel wire for 
springs, and to cover it with braid ; and the making of hoop- 
petticoats employed thousands of men and women. But the 
business shrunk as ladies' skirts decreased, till the whole business 
was abandoned, after living about fifteen years. 

The ever-twinkling knitting-needles have been driven out of 
sight before the power-knitting-machine ; for the fastest knitter 



ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. BARTLKTT. 3S7 

could not make over one stocking a day. Now first-rate woolen 
stockings are sold for less than 25 cents a pair. 

Fifty years ago, books were expensive, and free libraries were 
unknown. Now we have a library in every school district, and 
great public libraries in our large cities. Copies of the works of 
the best authors, thanks to the want of international copyright, 
are sold for from 10 to 20 cents a volume. 

Original paintings by the great masters are beyond the means 
of the wealthiest men, and none but European travelers can ever 
see the best of them. But by the aid of the chromo, a repro- 
duction of the master-pieces of ancient and modern art (more or 
less bad) are sold in all print shops, and given away as an adver- 
tisement. The tobacco show-bills are a picture-gallery of them- 
selves; to say nothing of those of the soap, shoe and perfumery 
dealers. 

Twenty years ago, a lumburmuu looking at the zig-zag fences 
in our fields, said : " If Michigan had to be refenced, it will 
take every tree in the lower part of the State ; or some other 
method of fencing must be invented. The thousands of tons of 
barbed-wire in use has solved that question. 

Carpenters well remember the old-fashioned screw that had to 
be started with a gimlet ; and bless the man who invented the 
gimlet-pointed screw. 

Type-writers are a new invention. With them we make many 
copies at one time; and those unfortunates whose handwriting is 
illegible can make themselves understood in print. Unfortu- 
nately machinery will not correct bad spelling. 

To give an idea of the speed of type writing, 1 quote: "The 
average rate of speed of an expert type writer operator, on legal 
matter written from dictation, is about fifty words a minute or 
thirty folios of one hundred words each, an hour. This includes 
ordinary delays of dictation. For trial minutes, experts can 
attain a speed of one hundred words a minute, or possibly more, 
on new matter. The highest record of my own, that I now 
remember, is seventy-seven words a minute. On a practiced sen- 
tence of common words, a speed of one hundred and twenty-five 
a minute, or more, may be attained. The speed of fifty words a 
minute may be maintained until tin- operator requires food or 
sleep, without excessive exhaustion. Eighteen or twenty folios 



«388 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

an hour is a good average speed when the operator reads the 
matter from clear copy." ' 

LITHOGRAPHY. 

" Lithography, or the art of printing from stone, dates back 
about ninety years, though little use was made of it till within 
forty years ago. 

" The stone used for this purpose is a very compact homogeneous 
limestone, found in layers varying in thickness from one to six 
inches. The process of lithography is based upon the well-known 
antagonism of water and oil. It may be said to rest on the fol- 
lowing properties of the stone : 1st. That a drawing made upon 
the surface of the stone with fat ink, or crayon, of similar con- 
stituents as the ink, adheres to it so strongly as to require me- 
chanical force to remove it. 

" 2nd. That the parts of the surface not covered by the draw- 
ing receive and retain water. 

" 3d. That a roller or other instrument covered with fat ink, 
being applied to the surface of the stone when wetted, the ink will 
attach itself only to the drawing on the stone, and will be repelled 
from the wetted parts. 

" It will thus be observed that lithography differs entirely from 
the other graphic arts, not only in the material employed as a 
printing surface, but also in the causes or means by which the 
impression or print is obtained. Letter-press, block, or plate 
printing, are strictly uiechauical processes ; the impression from 
type is from a raised relief surface over which the roller passes, 
the parts to be left white being sufficiently depressed to escape 
contact with it. In printing from steel or copper plate, the ink 
is rubbed into the engraving, which has been cut or etched into 
the plate, and all surplus ink is entirely removed from its sur- 
face, while in lithography the printing surface is perfectly flat, 
and the impression is obtained entirely by reason of the chemical 
properties of the stone, water and ink." 

Fifty years ago lithography was almost unknown in the 
United States, and was started in Michigan about as early as in 
any other State. 

I quote from a letter from one who knows its history in the 



F. E. Rankin, Detroit. 



APDKKSS OF .(AMKS \V. li.\ U ll.K Tl'. 389 

State: " In 1861, just a quarter of a century ago, when litho- 
graphy was comparatively in its infancy in this country, and 
almost unknown in the West, when skilled workmen, machinery 
and materials were to be obtained with few exceptions, only in 
Europe, the founders of this enterprise laid the foundations of 
their present large and pros[)erous establishment. 

Developing and increasing with the State and country, it has 
now become one of the foremost lithographic establishments iu 
the United States. The crude small hand-presses of foreign 
manufacture, have given place to huge steam-presses of American 
production. Every improvement in the process and in machin- 
ery has been taken advantai^e of, and at the present time with 
over 200 employes, the company is shipping its productions to 
every section of our country; to Mexico, Europe, and the far-off 
Islands of the sea, an honor and credit to our great State.' 

THK WOKK8 OF MAN UNAIDED KY STEAM. 

I have spoken of that which man has accomplished by the aid 
of steam and organization ; l)ut great works have been done by 
men's hands, with little help from their heads. We look with 
wonder at the ruins of Karnac, the pyramids of Egypt, and the 
gigantic stones at Baalbec, as though such works would be impos- 
sible to-day. 

No doubt the old workmen had skillful architects to design, 
and good foremen to execute, great patience and plenty of main 
strength and stupidity for the heavy lifts. If anybody would fur- 
nish the money, he could close a contract, any day, to duplicate 
any or all of those works ; and if they would pay ten per cent, on 
the investment, we should have them in every town. But these 
great works are not to be compared with what man, without 
the aid of machinery, has done in America by his own 
hands. The first settlers found an unbroken forest stretching 
from the Atlantic to the Mississippi river ; and went to work to 
clear it up. Tree by tree the forest disappeared ; generation atler 
generation of axe-men hewed out homes, and by the aid of fire, 
let iu the sun to their little clearings. (The settler iu the forest 
hates a tree. It keeps his land a swamp, and the sun from his 
crops ; and his first aim is to exterminate the forest.) Among the 



' C. H. (Jaiiiller, Calvert Lithograpli and Kiijjraving Co., Detroit. 



390 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

ashes of their fires they raise small crops between the stumps ; 
and by persistent labor the roots are removed, till the sleepy oxen 
have room to draw the plow; grass springs up, the cattle increase, 
and the once howling wilderness becomes smooth pasture, or cul- 
tivated field. 

The first inland communication in a new country is by Indian 
trails. Next comes the blazed track of the landlooker, followed 
by the winter road, passable only on the snow, then the roads are 
cleared of trees, stumped, corduroyed, and turn-piked, so as to be 
passable in summer; bridges are built, plank and gravel improve 
the roadway, and finally comes the paved streets of cities. 

Settlers establish themselves in the wilderness, and farms are 
cleared up and improved. After fifty years we have within our 
borders 205,000 farms, aggregating 18,400,000 acres, of which 
10,000,000 are improved into tillage, orchards and mowing, and 
the remainder is yet in wood land or old unproductive fields. Of 
the remainder of the 36,800,000 acres in the State, 14,000,000 is 
yet forest, leaving 6,000,000 acres for roads, towns and cities. To 
hew out and grade the roads, clear up and plant the farms, rep- 
resent more human labor than all the other work that has been 
done in the State. 

The amount of human labor that is yearly expended in cutting 
and preparing for stoves and fire places the 145,778,137 cords of 
firewood that is annually consumed in the United States, will be 
appreciated by those of us that have cut and corded it at SI a 
cord. 

IN CONCLUSION. 

For my part, I don't want any more of the good old times. 
The present time is the best we have ever had, though I hope not 
the best that we shall ever see. In fifty years we have reduced 
our hours of labor from fourteen to eight hours a day; our wages 
are doubled, and the necessities of life are much cheaper. The 
great curse of drunkenness is very much diminished. We live in 
better houses, better warmed and lighted, and we are better 
clothed; a high school education is in the reach of every child; 
books are free to all; the poorest laborer who meets with an acci- 
dent in our streets will receive surgical aid that no king could 
purchase fifty years ago. Our great elevators and ware-houses 
store the products of plentiful years to supply those in which the 



ADDKEsS OF .I.VMKS \V. BARILKI'I'. 31U 

harvests are blighted ; ami our great railnnuls distribute the fruits 
of labor, so that famines ari> iinj)ossil)le. Beef killed on the 
prairies is distributed all over the country, and supplies the 
markets of Europe. Fish from the salt seas and our great lakes 
are eaten fresh, all over the continent, even in the most barren 
deserts; and tropical fruits are peddled round in all our streets. 

When we consider the great advance we have made in fifty 
years, we may flatter ourselves that there are no more fields to 
conquer; but I have no doubt the machinist of 1836 thought he 
had put the cap-stone on the works of his predecessors. 

I see two things beginning to loom up in the horizon that may 
completely change the whole system of manufacturing, and the 
use of coal and iron may become a thing of the past. The use of 
natural gas is ii» its infancy; but in the iron and glass works in 
Pittsburg it has taken the place of 20,000 tons of coal a day, and 
the field is widening every day. If this gas should be found 
inexhaustible ; if, as some claim, it is caused by the decomposition 
of water by the internal heat of the earth, and thus liable to be 
found everywhere, and therefore we can get our heat without 
labor, it would be the greatest step the world has ever taken. 

Distributed through the entire world, one-fourth of the con- 
tents of every clay bank is composed (jf a metal, ductile and mal- 
leable in the highest degree, indestructible by acids, lighter than 
glass, and much stronger than steel. When it was first made, it 
cost many times its weight in gold. Eight years ago it cost 864 
a pound. Within two years it has been furnished at $4 a pound ; 
and now it can be produced for $1 per pound, and we may see 
the day when it will be as cheap as iron. If this should happen, 
it would make more change in the world than the use of steam 
has made in fifty years. 

I prophesy that fifty years hence, the machinist who takes up 
the subject and passes it along for another halt' century, will have 
for his text Natural (tos and Aluminum. 



ADDIIESSl^ AT THE GRAND STAND. 



Hon. T. H. HINCHMAN, Presiding. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow-Citizens : We meet to- 
day to recall and acknowledge the many favors conferred by 
Divine Providence on the people of this State in the past fifty 
years, and to mark the progress made. During the early years 
of a State this is necessarily material. Labor and efforts tend 
mainly to develop and establish industries; and to build, endow 
and maintain educational and other institutions. 

The Legislature and Governor have considered it fitting and 
appropriate to celebrate this day, apprehensive that events beyond 
their control may forbid their observance of a Centennial. 

We have lived in an extraordinary epoch. The inventions and 
developments the past fifty years have more than eclipsed those 
of many centuries, and, in some respects, those of all centuries. 
The advancement has been educational, in agriculture, inven- 
tion, mechanics, physics, science and industry, rather than in 
religion, morals, architecture or art. 

The commission appointed have aimed to present in addresses 
to be delivered this day, records of the past, appropriate to the 
occasion, which will be published in book form, for the informa- 
tion of the absent, those who are to follow and for those who vvill 
celebrate a centennial fifty years hence. 

If in the coming half-century, a corresponding material and 
physical advancement is made, together with religious, moral, 
intellectual, medicinal and sanitary acquirements, this State will 
occupy a proud and distinguished position. 

Moral, intellectual, or sanitary progress is not presented at 
the time, save only as it cannot be eliminated from the educa- 
tional. Neither is architecture or art included. The two last 
are yet in a rudimentary state. They are indicative of wealth 
and luxury, and eventually mark culmination and decline, and 
become the enduring monuments of past greatness, when all things 
else have crumbled, decayed, or become oblivious. May many 



ADDKKSS OF ilON. W. L. WKIJBKK. 393 

centuries pass before art and architecture reacli their climax in 
Michigan. 

Shall we anticipate, thougli not in a jsanguine or prophetic spirit, 
that intellectual, moral and sanitary achievements, illustrated and 
presented by historical, poetical, social words and literature may 
be the leading themes and characteristics of the gathering to cele- 
brate the Centennial in 1936? 



AGRICULTURE. 

Hon. W. L. WEBBER. 

Mr. Presidknt and Fellow-Citizens : It seems peculiarly 
appropriate for me to take part in this celebration. It is the semi- 
centennial of the Slate; it is also the semi-centennial of my resi- 
dence therein. Fifty years ago, in the early days of June, among 
those who were crowding the means of transportation to reach 
Michigan, to seek homes for themselves and to assist in develop- 
ing the agricultural resources of the State, was my father with 
his family. On the 11th day of June, 1886, he brought us to the 
farm which he had purchased from the (Tovernraent, in the town- 
ship of Ilartland. Livingston county, consisting of two hundred 
acres of heavy oak openings, with a stiff clay soil. Though but 
a youth at the time, I took part with him in transforming this 
wilderness into a farm. Tlie first step was to cut the heav}' growth 
of timber from the land, to select sufficient therefrom to make rails 
with which to fence the fields, and to burn the remainder in order 
that the land might be rid of its incumbrance — an incumbrance 
then, but which, if standing now upon the soil, would more than 
add double to its present value. After the clearing of the land, the 
heavy breaking-up plow was brought into use, with its four-yoke 
of oxen as a team ; and it was considered good work if three- 
quarters of the surface was fitted for the first crop. The many 
stumps and roots too large to be taken out by the plow, forbade 
more than this partial cultivation of the soil, and rendered 
extremely difficult the work which was performed. 

The life of tlie pioneer was no life for a lazy man. The life of 
one was like the life of all, — constant labor to provide means for 
supporting the family. It was the life of the woodsman combined 
with the life of the farmer. Working earlv and late, sometimes 



394 miohiuan's skmi-ckntknnial. 

in sunshine, and often in storm, the pioneers laid the foiiudation 
in Michigan for its glorious development as an agricultural State. 
In those early days there were no highways Ht to travel, mills were 
at a distance, and there were practically no markets. The pio- 
neers contended against odds which many of the present generation 
would consider it vain to battle against. But it was necessary that 
some money should be procured from the farm products, because 
taxes must be paid in cash. To obtain this money wheat was con- 
sidered well sold at fifty cents a bushel. In my own experience, 
I have taken ei<;ht barrels of flour to Detroit, a distance of fifty 
miles, and over the roads as then existing a journey of five or six 
days, and received only S3 a barrel, or $24 for the whole load. 

But though the toil was severe there was no repining. There 
was no complaining of long hours or severe labor. There were 
many compensations for the hardships to which the pioneers sub- 
mitted. Every man was willing to share with those who needed ; 
every neighbor was a friend. Every latch-string was out, and no 
one feared to admit a stranger lest he might admit a foe. There 
was game in the woods, and fish in the ponds and streams, and 
there were wild fruits growing in the forest. There was a genuine 
spirit of independence among the people, a spirit of self-reliance 
and confidence, with which every difficulty was met, and, so far 
as practicable, overcome. It was the best kind of a life to pro- 
mote that individual development of character, that spirit of self- 
reliance which constitutes the best type of manhood. 

The art of agriculture is the most ancient known to man, 
whether civilized or barbarian. Earliest history accords it a 
place among the most honorable of employments. Among the 
ancient Romans it was not considered beneath their dignity for 
Senators to engage in this employment. The example of Cin- 
cinnatus, who left his plow to guide armies in the field, returning 
again after victory to his peaceful pursuits, has ever been ap- 
plauded as one of the most noble on record. Virgil, nearly two 
thousand years ago, in his " Georgics," gives specific directions 
for the cultivation of the soil. He tells us that we should plow 
in early spring ; that a four-fold plowing will find its reward ; 
that we should not fight against nature, but understand the soil. 
That we should give proper attention to drainage. He gives 
specific directions for the care of domestic animals, and the rear- 
ing of fruits, and glorifies the life of the husbandman as follows : 



A.DDKESS OF IIO>'. W. L. WKHUKK. 395 

" O, husbauduieu, too dear to Fortune, if they know tlu-ir own 
blessedness! For them of herself, far from the clash of arms, all- 
riglitcous Earth pours from her soil an easy sustenance." * * * 
They have " repose without a care, and a life that knows not what 
disa|)[)ointment is, a life enriched with manifold treasures * * * 
the lowing of oxen, and soft slumber beneath the trees are theirs, 
with them * * * i.s a band of youths inured to toil, and 
accustomed to little ; the sacred rites of Heaven, and reverend 
sires: Justice, as she departed from earth, j)lanted among thein 
her latest footsteps." 

The importance of agriculture to the development of the State 
wa- fully understood and appreciated in the early days in Michi- 
gan by those in otticial position. In the message of Governor 
Mason, in January, 1838, among other things, he says: 

"The character of industry upon which the real prosperity of 
the State is most dependent, is the cultivation of the soil. ^lost 
nations have considered it their policy to encourage some par- 
ticular branch of industry, as the one from which they could 
derive the most abundant resources of wealth. But whilst the 
true policy of a free Government is to extend eciual protection to 
every department of trade, we are too apt to overlook the interest 
of the agriculturist. Michigan, it is true, may and will exhibit an 
important field for successful domestic manufactures, but the cul- 
tivation of her soil must at all times be regarded as the great 
source of .her pros])erity. It furnishes not only the means of 
human subsistence, but sujjplies materials for manufactures, as 
well as the chief resources of commerce. Whatever encourage- 
ment, therefore, we secure for the agricultural interest, extends a 
benefit to every other department of industry. Agriculture being, 
then, a primary and most important branch of State economy, 
it is the duty <>f the Legislature, not oidy to protect its members 
from disproportionate burdens, but to facilitate to them the advan- 
tages derived from the researches of science, and the discoveries 
and improvements of the age. With this object in view, I would 
recommend the creation of a board or society, whose duty it would 
be to foster and encourage this great source of national prosperity 
and independence, to gather desirable information, and at the 
public expense, distribute it to the tarmers of the State. Such a 
measure, I have no doubt, would in a short time be productive of 
important public consequences.'" 

A year later, he again calls the attention of the Legislature to 
this subject, saying : 

"The agricultural interest is one of great importance, and 
claims with justice the protection of the Government, and yet it 
has received less aid from direct legislation, than any other de- 



39H Michigan's se;mi-centennial. 

partnient of industry. But I feel that when it is recollected how 
essentially the real prosj)erity of Michigan depends upon the culti- 
vation of her soil and the labors of her husbandmen, the subject 
will receive your earnest consideration and favorable action." 

In the first constitution adopted by the State, which was framed 
by the convention held in 1835, it is provided, among other things, 
that "The Legislature shall encourage, by all suitable means, the 
promotion of intellectual, scientifical and agricultural improve- 
ment." 

The reverses which the people of Michigan sustained, beginning 
in 1838, when their unsound financial system exploded, and which 
continued for several years, prevented attention to the subject of 
agriculture to that extent which its importance demanded. But 
when brighter days began to dawn, carrying out the policy above 
suggested — the correctness of which all admitted — there was 
formed at Lansing, the capital of the State, on the 17th of March, 
1849, The Michigan State Agricultural Society. The call for the 
first meeting of this organization was signed by the executive 
officers of the State, and members of the Senate and House of 
Representatives. The first President of the society was Hon. 
Epaphroditus Ransom, of Kalamazoo, and the first Recording 
Secretary was J. C. Holmes, of Wayne. Hon. Henry Chamber- 
lain, of Berrien county, was one of the signers to the first call, 
and acted as secretary of the meeting at which the organization 
was perfected. Hon. Wm. M. Fenton (then Lieutenant Gover- 
nor) delivered an address, in which, speaking of the farmers, he 
says that they are '' lovers of their country for their country's 
sake; when danger threatens our institutions from without, or 
turbulence reigns within, we can rely upon the aid of such a com- 
munity to resist every encroachment, and ward off* every impend- 
ing danger. Virtue, intelligence, and that religion which is 
disconnected with gorgeous pomp and show, animates and inspires 
them to be jealous of their privileges, and ready to defend, if 
needs be, their homes, rendered doubly dear by their position, 
indepe ndent, as it must ever comparatively be, of all the world 
beside." 

And in closing, he says : 

" If we desire to perpetuate for the benefit of those who are to 
succeed us, the blessings we enjoy, to erect for ourselves and for 
after ages, the most enduring superstructure of a free (iovernmeut, 



ADDRESS OF HON. W. L. WKBBER. 397 

beneficent laws and institutidns, let us unite, one and all, in fos- 
tering, encouraging and promoting by every means in our power, 
the improvement of our system of agriculture, knowing that upon 
that for its base, and upon that alone, can our superstructure 
securely rest." 

General Lewis Cass, whose noble patriotism and statesmanship 
were so prominent in shaping the destinies of Michigan, recog- 
nized fully the importance of agriculture in its influence upon the 
welfare of the State. In an address delivered by him before the 
Kalamazoo Agricultural Society, in October, ISAO, he says: 

*'We have assembled here to-day to commune together, upon 
one of the great departments — the greatest indeed — of human em- 
j)loyment." 

Also, "He who puts his hand to the plow, and does not look 
back upon more brilliant but less useful employments, will not fail 
to find his reward in a happy and honorable life." 

In this connection I desire t(» make a still further quotation 
from this address, to show the broad and intelligent views which 
he entertained concerning education in connection with agricul- 
ture. He says : 

"There is one great error, to which public attention is now 
directed, and which ought long since to have found a corrective, 
and that is the too prevailing imj)ression, that education, at least 
to any considerable extent, is unnecessary for those who intend to 
devote themselves to the pursuit of agriculture. And in this con- 
nection, that some of the other j)rofessious are more respected, if 
not more respectable, than is the life of the independent farmer. 
* * * A more unreasonable and unjust prejudice than this, 
for it cannot be dignified with the name of opinion, it would be 
difficult to find in the whole circle of human errors. This class 
of our population are the natural guardians of our republican 
institutions: sentinels in safety, defenders in danger." 

Gen. Cass also delivered an address before the Michigan f^tate 
Agricultural Society in Detroit, September, 1851, in which he 
speaks of labor in the following language : 

"But in the natural, as in the moral world, the system of crea- 
tion is one of compensations — good and evil go hand in hand to- 
gether. Wiicre man lives without exertion or industry, he lives 
without virtue or intelligence, and dies as inditlerent to the future 
as he has been to the past. But where necessity — his real friend, 
though sometimes apparently a stern one — requires him to labor, 
he attains his true position, and fulfills his true destiny by the 



39S Michigan's semi-centennial, 

proper eraployineut of his faculties, physical and moral, and by 
their nobler development, which is sure to follow." 

Among the first acts of the State Agricultural Society was the 
proposition for an agricultural school, and from this idea ulti- 
mately grew the present State Agricultural ('ollege. Hon. Bela 
Hubbard took an active part in encouraging this "aid to agricul- 
ture," in a report which he made to the society in support of a 
resolution offered by hitu, in the following words : 

" Resolved, That our Legislature be requested to take such legis- 
lation as shall appear necessary or expedient for the establish- 
ment of a State central agricultural office, with which shall be 
connected a museum of agricultural products and implements, 
and an agricultural library, and as soon as practicable, an agri- 
cultural college and a model farm." 

Step by step the people of Michigan enlarged upon this idea, 
until the Agricultural College at Lansing became an established 
fact. I shall consume no time in speaking concerning this college, 
as its able President will do that subject justice in the address 
which he delivers at this celebration. I will remark, however, 
that it is an institution of which not only the farmers but the 
whole people of Michigan may well be proud ; and it is one which 
should receive their encouragement and support upon every 
proper occasion. Like all other human institutions, it is capable 
of misdirection, but the mission is a noble one, and, intelligently 
pursued, will give in the future, as it has in the past, most excel- 
lent results. 

The State Agricultural Society, organized to aid in promoting 
the best interests of agriculture and its kindred arts, has done 
much towards fulfilling the end of its creation. But it has not 
done as much as it should have done. It has not at all times 
received the support which it should have received. It has not at 
all times been managed with the wisdom requisite to insure best 
results. Yet, with all its errors and shortcomings, it has been one 
of the most useful institutions in the State. Its annual fairs and 
the reports of its officers have from time to time called attention 
to agricultural topics, and thus promoted the end in view. Its 
true purpose is educational ; and in this respect, like other educa- 
tional agencies, if it educates wisely it is useful. The object of 
all education is to make men wi.ser, to teach them the proper use 
of their faculties, and to enable them to live in greater comfort 



ADDRESS OF HON. W. L. WEBBER. 309 

and with le.ss labor. The State Agricultural Society has done 
much in showing the larniers of Michigan how they raay better 
their condition by the raising of improved breeds of stock, and by 
the use of improved methods of work and better kinds of machin- 
ery. Its managers, as a rule, have worked unselfishly to promote 
the cause in view, always without remuneration for their services, 
and often at large personal sacrifice. The farmers of Michigan 
should be so deeply interested in the welfare of the Society that 
they will not permit it to be diverted to unwise ends. 

And tending in the same direction are all our local agricultural 
societies. It was formerly the practice for the county societies to 
report to the State society — a practice which might wisely have 
been continued, and to w'hich it would be well to retui'n. 

I think it would l)e wise, also, to have the State Agricultural 
Society reorganized, by a legislative act, in such manner as to 
more evenly distribute the membership of its executive commit- 
tee throughout the State. There has been in the past a tendency 
to localize the State Fair and the efforts of the State society. 
If its executive board were distributed so that there were two 
members in each Congressional district, and if its number were 
limited accordingly, all parts of the State would then be better 
represented, and the expenses of the management of the society 
would undoubtedly be very much lessened. The expense of hold- 
ing the fairs has been so great of late years that large receipts 
were necessary to pay the bills. I fail to see any advantage to 
the true object of the organization in the aggregation of such 
large numbers of animals of the various breeds, and I think it 
would lessen the expense of the fairs very much if the number 
were judiciously limited. It is only the better animals of the 
various breeds that are desirable for exhibition. The State Fair 
has been used too much as an advertising medium at the expense 
of the society. Too often, under the pretense of a necessity to 
put money in its purse, the society has resorted to trials of speed 
upon the track, with a view of creating an excitement in the com- 
munity, which would fill the grand stand. The breeding of good 
horses, such as farmers require for their own use, and such as the 
market will demand from them :it ;i pi'ofit, is useful, and the best 
efforts in that direction are worthy of encouragement. But the 
experience of the world is that the breeding of horses for speed 
alone is valuable miiiniy in giving pleasure to those who seek the 



400 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

excitement of the race-course, rather than in giving support to 
the cause for which the State Agricultural Society was formed. 

In considering subjects of this uature we are too apt to lose 
sight of the fact that, no matter what the occupation in which one 
is engaged, he is still a man, })ossessed of all the attributes of the 
race, its weaknesses and its errors. The pursuit of agriculture is 
rather ennobling and purifying, is less beset with temptation, and 
more free from vice. The contrast is often mentioned : The 
vices of the city, and the virtues of the country. 

The most prominent and successful business men of the cities 
were country boys. From the country they inherited and acquired 
that vigor of constitution and that habit of independent thought, 
that self-reliance, which are necessary to the success of all busi- 
ness men. The wear and strain upon the life of a business man 
in the city at the present time cannot be endured except by those 
who are blest with strong physical constitutions, as well as with 
great mental vigor. It is not pretended that all are equal in these 
respects, even though born and reared under like circumstances. 
While it is true in this country that all men are equal in their 
political rights, it is not true that they are born equal in their 
capacities, in their physical vigor and mental endowments. The 
inequalities which exist in these respects cannot be remedied by 
legislation. They are inherent conditions, and must be submitted 
to by men in all stations of life. It is unwise to contend against 
the inevitable. Very many of the evils of which men complain at 
the present time arise from these inequalities which no human wis- 
dom can remedy. If the activities of the race are properly directed 
these inequalities will gradually grow less. All men are not equal 
in their capacity to earn money and accumulate property. We 
are taught by the political economists — or, at least, by some of 
them — that labor is the source of all wealth. And many of the 
troubles in the business world of to-day arise from the accept- 
ance of this heresy. I agree that the production of wealth calls 
for labor, but labor alone does not necessarily produce wealth. 
Labor must have intelligent direction to produce wealth. It 
must be aided and reinforced by the bounteous and beneficent 
earth, by the changing seasons, by the rain and the sun, in order 
that beneficial results may follow. The man who carries a stone 
up a hill merely to roll it down again, may continue his labor all 
his life without adding to his own wealth or to the wealth of the 



ADDRESS OF ll(>^f. VV. L. WKJiUKK. -4"1 

world. The capacity of men to earn money, then, depends not 
only upon their physical endowments, but also upon their mental 
qualifications. Intelligent direction to labor is what makes it 
valuable. Every man of observation and experience knows that, 
for example, in one hundred laborers the best ten men will earn 
more money than the poorest twenty. This is a truth which 
every laborer should appreciate. And he should have just and 
fair compensation, not only for his physical exertions, but for his 
mental guidance as well. In other words, it is his inheritance to 
have his fair share of the wealth he aids in producing, and it is 
not the right of his weaker or less fortunate co-laborer to be put 
upon an exact equality of wages with him. 

When the laboring n:en fight against these laws of natun; they 
simply waste their strength and injure themselves. Like one who 
beateth tlie air, he fatigues himself but injures no one else. Un- 
fortunately, however, many of these so-called labor agitators, in 
their efforts to demonstrate their false theories, not only injure the 
men who follow them, but they injure the entire community. 

Human efforts should be directed not only to the satisfaction of 
man's physical necessities, but also to the cultivation of such a 
frame of mind as will make men satisfied with their surrounding 
conditions, wherever those conditions cannot be improved. The 
pi*ayer of the ancient philosopher, " Give me neither poverty nor 
riches," has been the aspiration of the wise in all ages. Great 
wealth is not desirable. Ordinarily it .brings little real happiness 
to the possessor. But independence is desirable. Great wealth 
in the hands of good and wise men confers upon its possessors 
•great responsibilities and cares, for the ultimate good of their fel- 
low men. But in the hands of unscrupulous and dishonest men 
the power of great wealth is a tremendous influence for evil and 
oppression. 

The accumulation of large fortunes during the present genera- 
tion has been exceptional and extraordinary rather than otherwise. 
But it is so natural in man to love wealth for the power it brings, 
or to enable him to shine more brilliantly than his fellows, that 
he easily falls a prey to the temptation of making money, simply 
for the power and prominence that it gives him This is an evil 
which might be modified by wise legislation. But the wise legis- 
lator will bo content with partial remedies, wdien the people for 
whom the legislation is designed arc not prepared to enforce a 
26 



402 Michigan's skmi-oentennial. 

perfect cure. He considers the condition of society where the 
legislation is to operate, and frames his laws in such a way as to 
produce the greatest practical good. He is an impracticable 
legislator who undertakes to set up the standard of absolute per- 
fection, when it cannot be enforced among the people. Truths 
beyond the capacity of a generation are lost upon that genera- 
tion. But it is wise to utter them ; it is well for the world to 
have them promulgated. But their effect must be looked for in 
future generations. It is as true now as ever before that people 
having eyes see not, and having ears hear not. 

One truth which ought to be impressed upon all men with 
great vigor at the present time is that wealth does not necessarily 
bring happiness. Another is, that the happiest people on earth 
are those who live simply and purely and are content with their 
surroundings. The world has advanced wonderfully in many 
directions. But it was understood in the days of Solomon as well 
as now that all these things are vanity. 

The life of the farmer affords more opportunity for contempla- 
tion upon these subjects, and for just conclusions concerning 
them, than any other employment. His mind is more free from 
care — assuming, always, that he confines himself to the legiti- 
mate pursuits of his occupation. The farmei" who makes haste to 
be rich, who, learning of the fortune which some man has made 
upon the Board of Trade, mortgages his farm and sends his money 
to a broker for investment,, has gone outside of his legitimate pur- 
suits, and usually finds not only great disquiet, but loses his farm 
and ruins all his earthly exi)ectations. In this respect legislation 
might be wise to prevent men from injuring themselves. Laws 
against gaming have been enforced with good results. Laws 
might be ])assed, and should be passed to prevent all this unnat- 
ural kind of business, which is nothing more nor less than gam- 
bling. Legitimate commerce should be encouraged by all appro- 
priate means. But as well call it commerce to bet on the turn of 
a die as to bet upon the turn of a market. Gambling with cards 
or dice is safer even than gambling in these " bucket-shops '' or 
other similar institutions. With the cards or the dice there is 
always some element of chance. But in the other case the lambs 
are always shorn. It is said that there are over 3,000 stock brokers 
in the city of New York, who have an annual income avei'agiug 
not less than $10,000 each— §30,000,000 ! Where does this 



ADDKESS OF HoN. \S . I,. U KBHKK. 403 

money come from ? From the silly lambs in the country, who, in 
their unwise haste to be rich, enable these brokers to live in lux- 
ury. How much better it would be if this money were kept at 
home and judiciously expended for the promotion of the comfort 
and happiness of the people. The country is being constantly 
drained to the cities. Farmers should remember this fact, and 
be careful to so conduct their own business that they individually 
may not contribute to this depletion of the country for the advan- 
tage of the city. 

It may not be wise to limit individual ac(iuisition. Hut the evil 
of great accumulation of wealth would be lessened if it should be 
provided by law (as it may be, without violation of constitutional 
rights) that estates should be distributed so that no one person 
should receive from the estate of a deceased person more than a 
certain sum to be luimed in the law; any surplus to go into the 
common treasury for the common good. But the incentive to 
acquisition should not be taken away, for that is the mainspring 
of business life. And yet the power of ac(iuisition to an extent 
which gives power to do the State mischief should be lessened. 
That State is in best conilition which has no paupers, and no 
citizens possessing sutiicient wealth to endanger public good. 

We have a system ijf common schools, each of which is growing 
and aspiring to become a university, in which the people of the 
State take great pride, and justly so. The motive which prompts 
the community to su{)port these schools without expense to the 
pupils is a most worthy one. It may well be doubted, however, 
whether greater good might not be accomplished if these schools 
were more thoroughly practical in their teachings. That edu- 
cation is best which gives the best practical results. Great fears 
have been expressed lest sectarianism be taught in our public 
schools, and in the effort to avoid that avowed evil I have some- 
times thought that the opposite extreme has been reached. The 
education of the children in the public schools is confined purely 
to the development of their intellect, without reference to the 
training of the moral faculties, which are to give direction in life 
to the powers ol the intellect. Knowledge is power. But it may 
be power for evil as well as for good. All depends upon its direc- 
tion. And whether intellectual development is a good or an evil 
depends upon whether it is guided by coiTect moral principles 
into proper channels. Children should be taught to be good as 



404 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

well as intelligent. And that teacher who omits moral training 
from his course omits the element which is to determine whether 
the result of his teaching will be useful or otherwise. There is 
no danger of promoting sectarianism in following out this sugges- 
tion. There is a wide range of moral principles in which all good 
people agree ; and if these are observed the disputed points may 
be omitted without danger. 

No man is well educated who does not know how to make a 
living, by availing himself of his own capabilities and the forces 
of nature about him. If those who complain that the labor mar- 
ket is overstocked, and that they cannot find employment with 
which to support their families, would avail themselves of the 
opportunities abounding everywhere throughout this State, for 
seeking their sustenance and independence from the soil, they 
would greatly promote their own interests. While it is true that 
the more intelligent farmer always obtains better results, yet it is 
also true that mother earth is very kind, and grants even to those 
of little skill and little knowledge sufficient to supply actual 
want. No man is so ignorant but that with willing hands 
he can obtain comfortable sustenance from the land. And, for- 
tunately, as yet, land is in such abundance throughout this State 
that none who are disposed to labor in that direction are unable 
to obtain its use. The farmers and all others must learn to be 
content with enough. 

The trouble with the country just now is that there are not 
markets enough to take the surplus. Our manufacturing indus- 
tries are so varied and extensive, and the products are so numer- 
ous that we have a surplus. Our soil is so productive that we 
have a surplus of cereals ; we have a surplus of meats. Although 
complaint is made of stagnation and general depression in busi- 
ness, in fact, everything is in surplus, except markets. A few 
years since, the country west of the Mississippi took from the 
farmers east its supply of breadstufFs. Now more than half of 
the cereal surplus of the country is produced west of the Missis- 
sippi, and probably not one-sixth of the capacity of that territory 
has been called upon. What are we to do with this surplus? 
Will farmers ever see the day again when they will get a dollar 
a bushel for their wheat? We must all learn to be content with 
enough, and not strive to go beyond it. And those people who 
complain of the dullness of the labor market must seek inde- 



ADDRESS OF HON. W. I.. WEBBKK. 405 

pendent livelihood ii|)on tlu' farm ii" they would seek their own 
good. 

No State in the riiion, nn place in the world i.s better fitted for 
independent life than Mieliigan. Everything may be produced 
here necessary to .satisfy reasonable desires. Fifty years ago the 
country was anxious to encourage manufactures and production, 
so that in case of foreign war the people would not suffer for the 
comforts of life. We have passed that stage now. Everything 
necessary for the comfort of life is produced in abundance among 
us. And in our anxiety to become wealthy, to secure great 
accumulations, we are reaching out to the world for markets. 
If these markets fail to come we should be content to enjoy our 
abundance. 

Our Government is formed uj)on the theory that every individ- 
ual is to have the greatest opportunity to secure and promote his 
own happiness, always within those rules and regulations which 
society has prescribed, to prevent improper interference with 
others. Tiidivi<lual development, individual opportunity has 
made this country what it is. We started out with the theory 
that i)ower was inherent with the individual, and tliat (4()vern- 
nient had such powers as were conferred by the common consent 
of the individuals to be governed. This theory was not in accord 
with that which prevailed in the old woild. All jjower there was 
vested in the crown, and what power individuals possessed was 
such as had been conferred upon them by the crown. The theory 
of the old world tended to throw society into classes. As the 
crown dispensed its favors, powers were exercised by one class or 
another, according to the bounty of the sovereign. But here, 
where every individual stands before the law equal in civil rights, 
society should never be forced into classes. Every attempt so to 
do is at variance with the whole theory of our government. The 
organization of one class as a laboring class, and the organization 
of another class as employers is greatly to be deprecated. We 
have set out upon the theory that man is capable of self-govern- 
ment, and it is a duty which this generation owes to posterity to 
take no step backward. One hundred years and over of our gov- 
ernmental experience have passed, and so far it has proved a 
success. Upon the people of this generation it depends whether 
it shall continue such. Do not |)ormit these ideas of classifications 
in society, im]iorted from the old country, to bo introduced here. 



406 mk.hkjan's semi-centenntal. 

Let it be understood distinctly that every individual is to stand 
upon his own mei-its, upon his own virtues, upon his own capaci- 
ties. 

There is no class in the community to which attejitiou is 
directed with so much hope for the preservation of our institu- 
tions as to those engaged in agricultural pursuits. Let them 
cultivate practical education, (he spirit of individual liberty, and 
the development of individual self-reliance and self-respect. 
Let them encourage respect for the law, which is only the 
expressed will of the whole society, the observance of which is so 
essential to the peace and safety of all. The past lies behind us 
and is safe, the present is in our control, and the future depends 
largely upon the example which w^e set for those who are to fol- 
low us. If we see to it that the principles I have announced are 
commended to those who come after us we may lay down our 
burdens with the assurance that the future of the State is safe. 



MICHIGAN HORTICULTURE. 

A resume of its progress, and notes concerning its connection with our 

prosperous condition, and suggestions about its impress 

upon the future homes of our State. 

HON. CHARLES W. GARFIELD. 

The man of wealth or learning who has secured his acquire- 
ments through long years of constant adherence to his purpose, 
and has won success and renown in the face of serious difficulties 
by means of sacrifices which taxed to the utmost his powers of 
endurance, delights to recall, occasionally, and with a wholesome 
pride, the great obstacles overcome, the triumphs attained, and 
will, for the amusement of his auditors, unfold at times, failures 
that in the perspective have a ludicrous aspect, but which render 
more complete the progressive steps to a worthy success. 

So we to-day, in hastily reviewing the facts and incidents con- 
nected with the pioneer attempts in the field of Michigan Horti- 
culture, may be justly proud of the rapid strides taken in the 
face of astonishing difficulties, and can smile at the errors and 
trials, which from our point of view, scarcely checked the onward 
movement, but which, when experienced, looked like mountains 



ADDKESS OF HON. CHAULKS \V. GAKFIKLU. 4<>7 

in the way of success. In the hands of the past we will find 
tightly grasped tiie key to unlock the future. The strength at- 
tained in overcoming serious difficulties, is that to be employed in 
climbing to greater heights of success. 

The pioneers who came to our part of the great Northwest 
Territory, in their beginnings, had little thought of horticulture, 
pomology or floriculture. They had to deal immediately with a 
great forestry question. The problem of how soonest to turn 
the great trees into ashes and gases, so as to let the life-giving 
sunlight have an opportunity to touch the soil and quicken to life 
the germs that would give the largest amount of simple food to 
maintain the strength for wider clearings and broader life. They 
at once absorbed the notion, and acted upon it, that the axe and 
torch would pave the way to the most satisfactory acquirements, 
an idea that has been bred so thoroughly into the generations 
that have followed them, that the argument of approaching ster- 
ility of soil and consequent poverty of possessions will alone 
eradicate it. 

The |)ioneers found fruits of certain kinds growing in abun- 
dance without the *'Art which does mend Nature." Grapes, 
plums, crab and thorn apples, gooseberries, huckleberries, rasp- 
berries, blackberries and elderberries were well distributed over 
our penin.sula and served to give variety to many a meal for the 
early settlers, which otherwise would have been confined to a 
narrow range of substantials. Vegetables were less abundant ; 
but I have been told that in the absence of any garden products, 
the forests afforded a few things that were utilized, prominent 
among which were the wild onion and leek, while from the brooks 
were gathered abundance of cress. Occasionally a pioneer will 
now laugh at any early experience in testing the quantities of 
the wild turnip, — an experience of which a very little goes a great 
ways. 

rilK RK(4lXN'IXf4S. 

It may not occur to many (»f our people that the horticulture 
of Michigan may have had its beginning as early as that of Mas- 
sachusetts, as the French Jesuit mi.<sionaries visited Detroit the 
same year that the 3Iayllower lauded its pilgrims at Plymouth 
Roek. From the old French records we gather that it was the 
custom of the early Jesuit missionaries to leave at the jjoints at 
which they touched, as tlu'v paddli'd their way along the borders 



408 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

of our great iuland waters, some luark to record tlie path they 
traced iu the unknown world. There would be no benevolence to 
future travelers to dig a well, as did the patriarchs of old, but 
they could plant a tree or scatter a few seeds of apples and pears 
that would mark their camping grounds for generations; and 
while recording the adventurous spirit of these daring men, would 
be emblematical of their purpose to scatter the "seedof the Word" 
among a people whom they hoped to lead to a knowledge of their 
God. 

In the very early records of the missions established by the 
French, are references to the trees planted ; and the old apple and 
pear trees mentioned in the early sketches of Detroit, Michilimac- 
kinac and the Sault Ste. Marie, indicate that the climate of Michi- 
gan with reference to pomology had a test at a very early day ; 
and the great age to which the first plantings of trees attained, 
and their productiveness, indicated strongly the possibilities of the 
future in the growing of fruit. The plantations of apples and 
pears made on both sides of the Detroit river or at " D'Etroit," 
the straits, as it was then w^ritteu, were very productive in fruits, 
and as this was on the line of travel of many of the tribes of 
Indians, who each autumn took a trip from our peninsula to Eng- 
lish and French stations in Canada, it is not singular that fruit 
trees sprang up along their trails, which are mentioned in the early 
records of the country about Pontiac and the Saginaw Valley as old 
and productive trees when first the white man penetrated the 
wilderness of these regions. At Monroe the items of history as 
connected with the old pear trees that have rendered this city 
famous have been woven together by Hon, Edwin Willits (see 
Michigan Pomological Report, 1874, p. 351), who found that these 
venerable trees grew from sprouts taken from a famous tree at 
Detroit, which was planted in the latter part of the seventeenth 
century. Wherever these old trees were planted they grew thrif- 
tily, were healthy and produced enormous quantities of fruit. 

Prof. J. C. Holmes in a paper read before the Michigan Pomo- 
logical Society, records that William L. Woodbridge upon whose 
farm some of (see Michigan Pomological Report, 1873, p. 337), 
these trees stood, had repeatedly gathered from single pear trees 
a crop of fifty bushels of fruit. 



ADDRESS OF HON. CHARLK^; VV. (lAKFIPXD. 409 



TItK FIRST SETTr.KUS. 

Immediately after the war of 1812 the emigration from the 
East to our State really began; and of the men who sought to 
establish homes in Michigan between 1820 and 1835 a majority 
were from New York and New England ; they were people who 
had known in their eastern homes the value of orchards and 
gardens ; and while their wives were willing to assist in burning 
the brush and performing such other labor as they could in 
hastening to enlarge the openings in the vast forest, they did not 
forget the flowers and vines which a(h)riied their eastern homes, 
and (juickly embellished the log houses with such attractive 
features as a knowledge of horticulture could suggest. In every 
part of the State I have found reminders of the taste and good 
sense of these pioneers in rendering tlicir homes attractive. And 
many a beautiful residence is given character and individuality 
to-day by the trees and vines planted by the wives of these pion- 
eers. Living as I do upon the oldest farm in Kent county, I 
keenly appreciate the thoughtfulness' and the generous heart of 
Mrs. Burton, the first farmer's wife of this county who, with her 
own hand planted larches and walnuts, which to-day are not only 
the pride of our family, but of the locality. 

BRIEF LOCALITY NOTES. — DETROIT. 

The first plantations of orchards of any account in our State, 
were made at Detroit, from stock secured across the river, the 
stock having originally com(> from France to Montreal, and pro- 
gressed westward with the settlements. The varieties were Fam- 
euse, Porame Grise nnd Red and White (■alville. 

Governor Woodbridge made the first large importation of 
orchard trees about 1825, the stock having been purchased of 
Grant Thorhurn of New York. In 1S30 he bought a large con- 
signment of small trees of the leading varieties then known in 
New York, and shipped from Buffalo by a schooner, which was 
frozen in on its way and consequently the stock de-stroyed. 

There were about 2,000 of the trees first jnirchased, and they 
wore put into two orchards. Among the varieties of apples were 
R. I. Greening, Baldwin, Esopus, Twenty Ounce, Early Harvest, 
Belle Flower, Roxbury, Russet and Fall Pip|tin. 

In 18.S.'> Wm. L. Woodbridge, son of Governor Woodbridge, 
established a small nursery. 



410 mk^higan's semi-centennial. 



MONROE. 

Perhaps no locality in our State has a so well preserved record 
of early orchard tree planting as Monroe. Here stand, side by 
side, trees planted in each decade for a century. Each French 
settler, as soon as he erected his cabin, planted a few sprouts of 
fruit trees. They were not orchardists ; no large orchards are 
found upon any of the early French farms — and judging by the 
productiveness of these old apple and pear trees, there was no need 
of many trees to sup{)ly a family with fruit. The old pear trees 
here do not bear choice dessert fruit, but an abundance of it, and 
especially adapted for culinary purposes. Mr. Willits, iu unfold- 
ing the early history of these trees, found that the first were 
planted by Francis Navarre in 1780. Numbers of trees are now 
standing of which authentic record has been preserved, that were 
planted before 1800. In a number of yards may be found trees 
planted very soon after the war of 1812. On the farm of S. M. 
Bartlett, Mr. Willits found, in 1873, an apple tree, the companion 
of which had been blown down and the rings of annual growth 
counted, indicating that these patriarchs were planted about the 
middle of the last century. 

WASHTENAW COUNTY. 

French traders came out as far as Woodruff's Grove, now 
Ypsilanti, very early in this century, and there are a few fruit 
trees standing to-day as relics of their visits. Apple trees are 
standing in Ann Arbor planted as early as 1825; hut the earliest 
orchard of which we have record was plantcnl in 1829 by Oliver 
Whitmore, a record of the varieties having been preserved to this 
day, written by Mr. Whitmore at the time of planting. 

A small nursery of fruit and locust seedlings had been planted 
by Deacon Israel Branch in 1825, which passed into the hands of 
Elihu and Augustus Mills the following year. 

In the fall of 1826 Hon. Horace Carpenter says, that himself 
and father came to Ann Arbor and brought one half bushel of 
apple seed which was planted on a half acre of laud, from which 
0,000 trees were sold during the following four years. 

In 18.S.'^ E. D. and L. K. Lay located at Ypsilanti and brought 
with them 20,000 cultivated fruit trees of all classes, erected a 
small greenhouse, and soon supplied a large region of country 



ADDRESS OF IKXN. (JIlAIiLES W. GAKFIELD. 41 I 

with orchard .stock. Thi.>< was the first general nur.sery in the 
State. Otlicrs had phiuted a few rows of seedlings and j)ossibly 
there were, in a small way, grafted trees grown, but the Messrs. 
Lay started a stock that included all the leading sorts of the day. 
By 1840 they were so thoroughly established as to issue a full 
catalogue of forty pages. 

LEXAWEF> (JOUN'TY. 

The following note kindly sent me by Prof R. C Kedzie of 
the Agricultural College, gives a brief account of the very earliest 
attempt at fruit growing in Lenawee county. He writes: "My 
father moved into Michigan territory in May, 1826, making his 
home on a farm of oOO acres on the bank of River Raisin in the 
eastern edge of Lenawee county, now known as Deerfield, but for 
a long time called Kedzie's Grove. Having cleared off the woods 
from a part of his farm, he set out a small ap[)le orchard with trees 
obtained from Monroe ; mostly natural fruit, but a few trees of 
"grafted apples,'' a variety probably local in Monroe, which I 
have never been able to identify with'any recognized variety de- 
scribed in books. He also set out in the "door yard" a number 
of trees of the Kentish cherry, a n)w of red Dutch currants and some 
native blackcap raspberries along the big oak log that made part 
of the garden fence. He planted peach pits from which we soon 
had a supply for ourselves and neighbors — a big crop every third 
year, with light crops intervening. He sowed apple seeds and 
started a nursery of about half an acre, which produced vigorous 
seedling trees, from which sprung many of the orchards in the 
southern side of Lenawee county. 

Farmers with their ox teams came from Adrian, Bean Creek 
and Palmyra to get a load of these trees to start an orchard. The 
price of a thifty tree seven or eight feet high was a York shilling 
(124 cents), and usually the payment was made in iS{)anish quar- 
ters, the most abundant silver change oi" that day. For plums 
we depended upon the wild varieties which grew in abundance on 
the banks of the river and on the small prairies. 

Our grapes were the wild grapes that grew so ai)undantly <>n 
the banks and bottoms of the river as to give the name " Raisin " 
to that tortuous stream. I never knew any raisins to be made 
from those grapes, for they were for the most part of the " fox '' 
or " frost grapes," which only ripened after the action of a sharp 
frost, and even then were very sour. 



412 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Orchards of some size, of both apples aud pears, were growing 
in Frenchtovvu (Monroe) iu 1826, and produced a fair supply of 
fruit. I well reraember that the event of the year was when my 
older brothers took a load of corn or potatoes to Monroe (25 
miles away) to exchange for a load of apples, going one day and 
returning the next. The roads were poor and traveling slow, and 
it was often midnight before the wagon with its precious load of 
fruit reached home. Yet there was no rest or sleep in the house- 
hold till it came, and when it did come, to my young senses, the 
house was tilled with the very breath of Paradise. 

My father planted aud sewed iu hope of a future harvest, but. 
he never lived to see the blossoms or taste the fruit of his plant- 
ing. Within two years he was called to pluck the fruit of the 
tree of life that grows beside another stream than our " muddy 
Raisin." 

Very soon after the first plantings at Kedzie's Grove, Darius 
Comstock aud his brothers and the father of Mr. R. W. Steele, 
settled at Adrian and started orchards with stock brought from 
Western New York. 

.JACKSON. 

Mr. A. W. Daniels, who came to Jackson in September, 1830, 
erected a log house on tlie land which his father, John Daniels, 
had located. This farm is on the old territorial road just out of 
the city limits. This was the first farm in the county. He pur- 
chased a yoke of cattle in Detroit, came to Ann Arbor with 
them, then hired a wagon and loaded it with 2)rovisions aud 
farming implements and came to Jackson. Subsequently his 
father, John Daniels, sent him some fruit trees from Bethany, N. 
Y. He had to go to Detroit for them, and on returning, got 
stuck in the mud in crossing Grand River at the ford. He was 
obliged to leave the wagon mired until the next day, when he 
obtained assistance to bring it out of its Stygian bed, with its 
precious load, which was to be the beginning of fruit growing in 
this locality. 

In 1834 Timothy W. Dunham brought iu a chest of drawers, a 
lot of root grafts and planted them out in the township of Sand- 
stone. The following spring these were sold to T. K. Gridley and 
were the formation of the extensive orchards afterwards planted 
by this pioneer horticulturist. 



ADDKE88 OF ilON. CllAULES VV. GAKFIELD. 413 



EATON COUNTY. 

A colouy of Verraouters settled in Eaton county rti 18.>6, and 
foundt'd the town of Vermontville. Oren Dickinson planted the 
first apple seedis, from which he planted an orchard that to-day is 
thrifty and fruitful. E. W. and H. C. Barber planted from this 
same lot of seedlinj^s an orchard which is now owned by Hannan 
Dickinson. 

A relic of a plantation of trees made in 1«88 by Jay Hawkins, 
stands in front of the residence of Dr. Palmiter, in the village. 
Other orchards were started very soon after these in Bellevue, by 
Sylvanus Hendricks; in Hamlin, by Amos Spicer and John 
Montgomery; in Delta, by Erastus Egbert and Harlem Ingersoll. 

KALAMAZOO. 

Enoch French planted a few apple seeds in 1838, bnt two years 
later Timothy W. Dunham, who had previously made a start in 
Jackson county, came to Kalamazoo with grafts and seeds, with 
the intention of starting a nursery on the plan of those at 
Rochester, N. Y., with which he had long been familiar. His 
etibrts were carried out with success. For several years he took 
the trip to the East to renew his supply, at a large expense for 
those times, and in a few years supplied a large area with trees. 

BAItRY COUNTY. 

Early settlers who came into the Grand River valley by way of 
Kalamazoo, will remember the first plantation in Barry county, 
at Yankee Springs, made by "Yankee" Lewis. He had a fine 
garden which was on the site of what is now the most extensive 
orchard in the c(niiity. 

INUIIAM CO IN IV. 

The first ai)ple trees i)laDted in Ingham county were set in the 
town of Stockbriilge by David Rodgers in LSoO. In 1886 he 
planted peach pits, imported from New Jersey, which proved to 
be of the variety known as Red Cheek Rareripe, which repro- 
duced itself from the seed. Other orchards were set in the same 
town in 1838. 



414 Michigan's semi-centennial. 



CALHOUN COUNTY. 

Robert Church settled on his farm two miles east of Marshall, 
iu 1836, and immediately cleared off a field of six acres and put 
it into an orchard. The trees were obtained of the Messrs. Lay, 
of Ypsilanti. Very soon after Mr. Church planted apple seeds 
and started a nursery. 

GRAND rapids. 

The very earliest history of horticulture iu the Grand River 
valley below Jackson, is connected with Grand Rapids as a 
French trading post. Louis Carapau, previous to 1834, had 
improved a piece of land extending from what is now the corner 
of Monroe and Waterloo streets to the river bank, which was not 
far off. This was a vegetable and flower garden, and occasional 
fruit trees and ornamental shrubs scattered through it. The most 
attractive thing about it was the flowers, and I have often heard 
" Uncle Louis " tell of the delight of the early settlers and 
Indians in traversing his garden from the canoe-landing to the 
curved path to his house. An old canoe answered for a propa- 
gating bed. 

It was in June, 1834, that the Reed family came to Grand 
Rapids and settled on the bank of the lake, east of town. After 
having forded the river to get some material for their house, one 
of the boys (Osmand Reed, now of Cadillac) espied some seed- 
ling apple trees in the corner of Uncle Louis Campau's garden 
and adroitly filched a handful of them, planting them on the 
new farm, where they now stand as monuments of the early 
days. 

About the year 1835, Mr. Abel Page moved to Grand Rapids 
and located on the bank of the river near the foot of Huron 
street ; Mr. Page and John Ahny started gardens, ))lanting in 
them such things as they brought from the East, and could get 
through the mail from friends, in the form of slips and seeds. 
They also made selections from the woods. It was in Mr. Page's 
river garden that the first tomatoes were raised in the Grand 
River valley. They were simply curious ornamental plants, 
called, then, " love apples." The only man in the country who 
would eat them was the schoolmaster, and he was accounted a 
lunatic. But the early settlers were all largely indebted to 



ADDRESS OF HON. (MIARLES W. GARFIELD. 415 

Uucle Louis Campau tor their tirst tilings plautod, wlio grew 
notliing to sell, but always gave with a generous hand. 

From the most authentic record I have ascertained that the 
oldest apple tree standing in tlie county is the one under which I 
swing my hammock in summer, and which shades the west side 
of my house. This is from seed phintcd by Barney Burton in 

MT. CLEMENS AND liOMKO. 

The first fruit tree planting in ^lacomb county was done by 
Moravians from the Muskingum valley, in ( )hio. These must 
have been set over a hundred years ago. Some of the trees are 
yet standing, and are of kinds unnamed in our present cata- 
logues. 

Among the early planters was Mr. Lazarus Green, in Wash- 
ington township. He planted peach pits as early as 1825 ; and a 
part of the orchard now standing on the farm upon which he set- 
tled, was planted out in 1827. The trees were of his own grow- 
ing, and brought from (renesee county. New York. Mr. Green 
for years grew nursery stock from which hundreds of orchards 
were [jlanted in .Macomb and adjoining counties. 

PONTIAt'. 

I am told that what was known as the Sprague nur.sery was 
started at Pontiac in IS'-i'i, and that from then for some years, 
trees were taken by the pioneers with which to start their 
orchards, even as far west as Grand Rapids. 

SA(JINAW. 

After the planting of the old Indian orciiards of the Saginaw 
Valley, the exact age of which is unknown, Mr. Abram Whitney 
set out the first fruit trees, in the fall of 1833, in section 18 of 
town 12 north and range 8 east. Others followed soon after, get- 
ting their trees from the Sprague nursery at Pontiac. The banks 
of the Tittabawassee were lined with plum trees, which furnishid 
the early settlers an al)undancc of" delicious fruit. The Indian 
apple trees were scattered along the river through a luimber of 
townships, and always l)i)re great quantities of fruit. In the 
early liistory of the county, there was nothing that would predict 
till' woiidcrtul capacity of the soil which has been developed in 
later years tor the growth of market garden products and small 
fruits. 



416 miouigan's semi-centennial. 



VAN BUREN COUNTY. 

For a scrap of early history in Van Bureu county horticulture, 
I am indebted to Judge G. W. Lanten. Dolphin Morris, in the 
spring of 1829, settled on Little Prairie Ronde, just inside the 
limits of Van Bureu county. Mr. Jones, who resided on McKin- 
ney's Prairie, Cass county, had secured some apple trees from 
Long Island, and parted with fifteen of them to Mr. Morris, for 
an equivalent of S15.00. From the Indian chief, Pokagon, Mr. 
Morris procured a seedling which bore abundant crops of a very 
good apple, and was for decades known as the " Old Indian apple 
tree." In the fall of 1830, in returning from a trip to Ohio, Mr. 
Morris brought three roots of the Bell Pear and plums and cher- 
ries, with a few peach pits. In 1833, neighbors of Mr. Morris, 
Le Grand Anderson, George Tittle and Mr. Swift, planted out 
orchards. The first currant bushes were brought in there by Mrs. 
Tittle in 1830, from Fort Defiance. Now, while their husbands 
were thoughtful in securing the fruits which would in a few years 
make glad the families of their households, their wives were not 
forgetful of those simple but delightful embellishments which 
flowers and shrubs and vines contribute to the home. 

Mrs. Morris grew peonies, hundred-leaf roses and many of the 
floral treasures, while Mrs. Anderson looked with pride upon 
crocuses, damask roses, snowballs and tulips of her own growing ; 
and an asparagus bed that was probably the first in the whole of 
Michigan. 

ST. .lOSEPH AND BENTON HARBOR. 

Any history of fruit growing at the mouth of the St. Joseph 
river always begins with the peach. 

B. C. Hoyt, in 1829, found peaches growing at St. Joseph, but 
before enough peaches were grown to supply the wants of the 
early settlers there, they were brought in by the wagon load in 
1834, from the vicinity of Niles, by a Mr. Brodiss. The rapid 
development of peach culture in the locality, I will speak of here- 
after. In 1837 the first orchard was planted at Benton Harbor 
by Mr. E. Morton. 

THE APPLE IN MKHKiAN. 

Tlie apple i.s king among all northern fruits; and the climate 
and soils of our State seem admirably adapted to the production 



ADDRESS OF HON. UHAKI.KS W. GAKFIELD. 417 

of the highest types of this fruit. Whether the fruit that grew 
upou the "tree of knowledge" belonged to the apple family or 
not, may be a matter of doubt ; but were the fruit as delicate and 
handsome as the apple grown in the many favored parts of our 
peninsula, it is not strange that the temptation to pluck and taste 
was not resisted. 

A large proportion of our people came from the famed apple 
region of western New York, bringing with them seeds and trees 
of the best varieties grown there, and a knowledge of the most 
improved methods of cultivation. The southern tiers of counties 
became noted twenty-five years ago for the fine quality of the 
apples produced there. Other .sections have surpassed the pro- 
ducts of these orchards of southern Michigan in height of color, 
but none in quality of fruit. 

And as the tide of emigration set northward and it was found 
that we could grow the most tender sorts of apples, on the line 
that bounds Vermont on the north, it was learned by experience 
that varieties grown in the northern latitude, were unequalled in 
firmness of flesh and consequent keeping qualities. It is a well 
known fact among poraologists that the varieties of the best qual- 
ity are of summer and autumn ripening. These sorts grown in 
the Grand Traverse region, maintain their record of quality and 
combine with it wonderful keeping qualities, so that a large pro- 
portion of the apples that rank as the very best, which are ripened 
and gone in other apple regions early in autumn are perfectly 
preserved in tliis northern country, l)y the ordinary methods, un- 
til midwinter. 

The 250 miles of longitude, and a climate tempered by sur- 
rounding bodies of water, in which apples can be successfully 
grown in Michigan, form an apple region unsurpassed in the 
world. And Michigan has proved by successful competition, the 
records of which she points to with pride, that the products of her 
apple orchards have no rivals to fear. 

In answer to a large number of letters which I sent out a few 
years ago, to farmers in our State, who had good orchards con- 
nected with their farms, not one, who had any taste for the care 
of trees but admitted that the orchard, after arriving at bearing 
age, was the most profitable area of land on the farm. 

We have about 'J4(),l)00 acres devoted to apple culture, in our 
State, which in a favorable year will produce over 5,000,000 
27 



418 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

bushels of fruit for export, and furnish ii liberal supply for the 
cellar of each owner of an orchard, and a moderate amount for 
his less fortunate neighbors. 

The fruit of Michigan apple orchards goes into the market in a 
diversity of forms. Although cider was its only orchard product 
mentioned in the first Michigan census, we now rank it as a minor 
product of the orchard. The most thrifty farmers are finding the 
waste fruit from the orchard a valuable food for swine ; the use 
of which ought certainly to be a convincing argument to our 
Hebrew brethren, that this class of pork can be neither common 
nor unclean. 

In every well regulated family, no winter evening is perfect 
without its accompanying dish of apples. Michigan people can 
all be well provided for from their own trees, and can send abroad 
with generous hand an abundance for less fortunate brethren in 
sister States. There was a time when it was said of Michigan, 

" Before a man gets out of bed, 
The doctor peeps into his head, 
And twenty doHars he must pay ; 
The doctor '11 have it on that day. 

Go there in summer, yon will see 
Much sorrow and calamity; 
Some sick in bed, some shivering stand, 
For that's the case in Michigan." 

What has worked this wondrous change by which Michigan's 
record for health compares favorably with other States ? I cer- 
tainly believe the apple has done a large share of it. 

Happy is the man whose home now is in Michigan, who can 
quaintly say with Marvell, 

"What wondrous life is this I lead, 
Ripe apples drop about ray head. " 

THE PEACH IN MICHIGAN. 

Prof C. D, Lawton remarked to me a few years ago, in some- 
thing like this vein: " Peach culture is one of Michigan's recognized 
industries. In the production of this healthful and delicious fruit, 
our State ranks among the first ; its advance has been rapid, and 
its recognized prominence is due to a very few brief years of earnest 
effort. There was a time when fortunes were made in a very few 



ADDRKSS OF HON. CHAKI.KS W. (JAKFIKLD. 419 

hours, through the exchauj^e of lands that were supposed to be 
especially adapted to the culture of the peach. But unfortunately 
the enchanting hopes awakened by the wonderful successes in the 
beginning of commercial peach orcharding, have been overcast 
with the presage of approaching evil. In the locality that first 
gave Michigan her notoriety in the culture of the peach for mar- 
ket, this fruit is but little grown to-day, and we know not how 
soon the blighting influence which caused the destruction of 
orchards here may spread over the entire State." 

Since these remarks were made, a more hopeful feeling prevails 
among peach men. By prompt measures the disease which pro- 
mised to sweep everything before it, has been stayed, and the hope 
is born that soon we shall be able to resist its further encroach- 
ment. 

We must reach back more than a century to find the beginning 
of peach culture in Michigan. Before the Revolutionary War, a 
Mr. Barnett sought to trade with the Indians of West Michi- 
gan, and touched at St, Joseph in 177"), and left a few peach pits 
that marked the place of the bartei'. In 1829 and 1831 the trees 
from this seed were found bearing abundantly, by pioneers whose 
names and statements are recorded. With no markets for the pro- 
duct peach orchards were not started by the early settlers except 
so far as supplying their own necessities was concerned. It was 
not till 1834, that peaches were grown in sufticient quantities to 
seek a market. It was Mr. Gaius Bough ton and son, Capt. Curtis 
Boughtou, who gave the peach interest of St. Joseph an impetus 
that resulted in ascertaining the wonderful advantage of the whole 
east shore of Lake Michigan, for peach culture. The captain 
bought peaches as early as 1840, and in the most jjrimitive pack- 
ages, such as barrels and boxes, carried sliii)ments to Chicago. 

In 1850 Capt. Boughton's record shows that he took to Chicago 
from St. Joseph 400 barrels of peaches, which, measured by the 
present standard, would be about 6,000 baskets. 

The growth of the peach interest from this time until 1872 was 
marvelous. In this year a careful canvass showed 1364 acres in 
this vicinity, closely planted to peaches ; and in 1871 an aggregate 
of 500,000 packages of peaches were shipped from the ports of St. 
Joseph and Benton Harbor. 

It did not take long for the news to spread nortliward along the 
shore, that a congenial honu' had been found for the peach ; and 



420 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

extensive plantations were made in the counties, reaching even to 
Grand Traverse. 

In 1881 the peach shipments from South Haven aggregated 
above $115,000. In 1879 a reliable authority places the income 
from the peach crop of Allegan county at $250,000. 

One grower, Mr. C Engle of Paw Paw, informed me that a 
careful account which he kept of his first peach orchard planted 
about 1861, for twenty-three years, showed a net income per acre 
of 13,200. 

No branch of special farming has been so profitable in our 
State, in the hands of experts, as peach growing 

Nature evidently arranged the conditions so that our State 
could be a perfect home for the peach. Embraced by the waters 
of the great lakes that formed a shield of protection from the 
freezing winter winds, and a mantle of protecting timber evenly 
spread over the land, the pioneers found that almost anywhere 
the peach would grow luxuriantly, and bear the same abundant 
crops of delicious fruit that were produced in the far off Southern 
clime, where it originated. But, alas, the change which man has 
wrought by the ruthless elision of our timber, has gradually closed 
in upon the area of successful peach culture, until now, except 
upon the heights of ground in the interior, the peach can only be 
grown upon a limited area next to the Lake Michigan shore ; and 
could the waters of the great lakes be drawn out and sold for 
money even its protecting arm would wither before the heedless 
avarice of num. 

It is the old story of killing the goose that lays the golden egg. 

The advent of that paralyzing disease, the yellows, introduced 
a new epoch in Michigan peach culture. It swept the industry 
from Berrien county before its power was known, and invaded 
the counties northward ; but a careful study of the habits of the 
disease and protective legislation have assisted the growers to 
meet the destroyer in successful combat. And although to-day 
little more is known of the cause of the disease than when it first 
invaded our soil, its symptoms are so well understood and the 
most approved methods of warfare so thoroughly taught the 
growers, that its progress is not feared. 

SMALL FRUIT. 

The small fruit interest has rapidly developed, witli a knowl- 
edge of how to grow the fruit, and the demand for it in the 



ADDKKSK OF lloN. OIIARI.KS W. (;.\KKIELI). 421 

growing markets. With the decadence of the peach industry in 
Berrien county, the small fruit area rapidly increased, until now, 
there is no place in the whole west that surpasses this region in 
the growtli of" small fruit for market. Mr. Morrill is authority 
for the statement, that it is not a rare occurrence for 10,000 
bushels of berries to be shipped from the ports at the mouth of 
the St. Joseph river in a single evening. Every town in our State 
is abundantly supplied with berries from the last of May until 
the first of September. 

GKAPE8. 

The early French voyageurs who paddled their way from Detroit 
southwesterly, following the indentures of the coast, found, as 
they passed up the river by the site of the present city of Monroe, 
that every tree was vine-clad, and they thought they had found 
the native haunt of the grape, and named the stream La Riviere 
an Raisiu (grape river). 

The liiaestone soil of this county seemed admirably adapted to 
the growing of i^rapes of the highest qualities; and rapidly the 
the vineyard interest increased, under the hands of competent 
growers, until it was the leading industry of this locality. 

Viticulture is now a recognized industry in our State, and 
growers have kept pace with the progress of knowledge in this 
field, until no farm house is complete without its accompanying 
bearing grapevines. The culture of the grape for commercial 
purposes has, under skillful management, been found profitable 
in every locality of our southern peninsula. 

MARKKT GARDENING. 

The market gardening interest of our State, in the aggregate 
so enormous, has developed largely within the last twenty-five 
years. Success in this industry has grown out of the acquire- 
ment of knowledge concerning varieties, soils, manures and mar- 
kets. Near all of our larger cities we find experts, who, upon a 
small bit of land, grow produce that secures them handsome 
incomes. And in some localities specialties are followed, which 
aggregate large profits. This is notably true of the celery pro- 
duct of Kalamazoo, Ypsilanti, Jackson, Grand Rapids and Grand 
Haven. About Kalamazoo nearly 1,000 acres are devoted to the 
culture of this vegetable. In many localities what have long 



422 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

been considered the waste lands in our State, have been utilized 
by progressive gardeners and made to produce enormous crops of 
vegetables of excellent (puility. I have no statistics at hand to 
exhibit the amount of invcstmejit in this branch of horticulture, 
or the area devoted to it. But visitors to the towns of our State, 
who travel over large sections of our country, say that no towns 
in the United States are so well supplied with a diversity of veg- 
etables and small fruit as those of Michigan. 

THE RICHEST PROFITS. 

But the most satisfactory profits that accrue to our people of 
Michigan from the growing of fruits and vegetables is not the 
amount of money netted from the area planted. The statistics 
of census-takers do not touch upon the richest returns that the 
development of horticulture in our State has gathered as a per- 
manency to our people. The cultivation of fruits as affecting a 
population is not a mere matter of the pocket-book and bank 
account. We proudly contemplate the array of figures that rep- 
resent the aggregate sales from the orchards, vineyards and fruit 
farms of Michigan ; yet could we put into some exact form the 
civilizing influence of fruit as grown about the thousands of Mich- 
igan homes, it would make a much grander showing. The mould- 
ing influences which determine the character of an individual or 
people, cannot be measured by figures. Yet they are as real as 
those which lie at the foundations of great fortunes. That which 
emanates from a man's brain is closely connected with that 
which enters his stomach. And the development of the possibil- 
ities of horticulture in any community is what gives diversity to a 
good living, and largely determines the type of the people. The 
masses have been elevated and refined by the advanced position 
that our State has taken in matters of pomology and horticul- 
ture. 

If I may be allowed to put the matter concisely, the most satis- 
factory income that accrues from the advanced position of Michi- 
gan horticulture, may be tallied from the diversity of fruits and 
vegetables that can be readily grown at slight expense, for the 
comfort of the households ; from the delightful turf that so rapid- 
ly takes possession of the area about our dwellings; from the wide 
range of attractive shrubs, annual and perennial herbaceous 
plants, and noble trees that may be gathered with success to 
administer to the satisfaction of the owuei'ship in a home. 



ADDRESS OK IIoN. CHARLES VV. OARKIKLD. 423 

CLIMATIC PKIVII-ICOES AS AFKECTINCi OUK IIDin'rcrLTURI-:. 

Lake Micliigiiii is truly a " clicrishing mother " to tlie orchar- 
dist. A body of" water oGO miles in length and 100 miles in 
breadth, it would float the three States of New Jersey, Dela- 
ware and Maryland, and is deep enough almost anywhere to 
bury Mount Holyoke beneath its waves. With its 8,400 cubic 
miles of water in one great basin, it maintains a temperature that 
varies comparatively little throughout the year. And this with 
the other fact that (55 per cent, of our winter winds are From a 
westerly direction, gives the key to our peculiar success in horti- 
culture. This it is which enables us to grow peaches on the 
forty-fifth parallel, which bounds Vermont on the north, and 
ripen figs in the open air on a ])arallel with Boston, Massachu- 
setts. 

This influence, to be sure, is felt most strongly on the border 
of Lake Michigan, and gives rise to the terra " Michigan Peach 
Belt," but the modifying effect is felt all over the peninsula. 
This ameliorating influence of the lake was noticed by the very 
earliest surveyors, in the native flora of the State, and their 
reports were the first that led to the noting on maps of the 
abrupt northward curve of the isothermal lines in Michigan. 

IMPORTANT EMPIRICAL ACQUIREMENTS. 

In a half century's progress in horticulture of our Stale, almost 
everything had to be learned. Allow me to state concisely the 
most important general facts that have been gatliered. 

1. Adaptation to a wide diversity of varieties. Nowhere can 
we find so rapid transitions of soil as in Michigan. Upon a single 
farm, of quite limited area, may be found all kinds of land, from 
the stifltest clay to the lightest sand ; and from ground limestone 
to a bed of muck. So that in learning the special adaptation of 
varieties to certain soil conditions, it has been found that a fruit 
or vegetable farmer in Michigan has a great advantage in adap- 
ting his sorts to the best conditions. 

2. The wonderjul capabilities of our ivest shore. These I have 
hinted at incidentally. The growing of the very tender varieties 
of fruits so near to great markets, along our west shore, and with 
little variations of conditions for so great a difference in longitude, 
as that of St. .loseph and Grand Traverse, is a wonderful acquisi- 



4:24 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

tion to our State. The peach belt of Michigan has an unques- 
tioned existence and a notoriety that is enviable. 

3. Atmospheric drainage. It is within the history of Michigan 
horticulture that the influence of atmospheric drainage upon the 
selection of sites for orchards and gardens has been brought to 
the front ; and the facts which show that valleys are not snug, 
cosy, warm places for tender fruits, and that high ground sloping 
so as to allow the cold air to settle away quickly, is the safest 
place to locate sites for fruit and vegetable culture, especially of 
the varieties which most readily suffer from the effects of frost, 
have been brought out by Michigan pomologists. The observa- 
tions and experiments of the fruit growers of Michigan have done 
more to spread the knowledge of these facts and impress them 
upon planters than all other means combined. 

4. Forest protection. We have been learning by the most ex- 
pensive methods the wonderful influence of a proper distribution 
of forest growth, and the dire consequences which follow the 
wholesale destruction of standing timber. The horticultural liter- 
ature of our State is strongly impregnated with facts bearing 
upon this subject. We are learning that the great lakes are not 
the only elements in our environment which modify our climate 
and render us better oflf than our neighbors in facilities for the 
prosecution of the more delicate branches of horticulture. 

Whether we profit by the knowledge, remains for the future to 
develop. There seems no stay yet in the ruthless destruction of 
forest growth, except the condition of the lumber and wood mar- 
ket. If the horticulturists of Michigan could speak persuasively, 
they would call a halt and shout to the timber slashers that "there 
is danger ahead." I certainly trust that the argument of facts 
may have an influence where it will be felt, to stay the progress 
of a method that will surely result in a limited horticulture. 

5. Market facilities. Certainly as far as markets are concerne 
we are highly favored. The rapid development of the great 
Northwest by a people who have an appreciation of the value of 
horticultural products, added to the fact that only the very hardi- 
est (which are usually poorest in quality), of these products can 
be there grown, places Michigan in an unique position with refer- 
ence to the unloading of her surplus fruits. The great distribut- 
ing markets of Chicago and Milwaukee are at her doors, with the 
most ready transportation at hand. The benefits to be derived 



AimRKSR OV M<»X. OHARLKS W. <iAKFIEI,D. 425 

from these conditions, to the market growers of Michigan, can 
hardly l)e overestimated. 

HORTICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 

As early as March, 1841, a few enthusiastic horticulturists of 
Detroit met and organized the Detroit Horticultural Society. 
The names of William Adair, Prof. J. C. Holmes, M. Howard 
Webster, Bela Hubbard, G. V. N. Lothrop, Thomas Hall, John 
Ford and Wm. B. Wesson figured prominently in the earlier pro- 
ceedings of the society. For years this association maintained a 
strong organization, holding regular meetings for discussion, and 
the exhibit of fruits, vegetables and flowers. 

The smaller towns tributary to Detroit joined in swelling the 
membership and exhibits. Tiie last meeting of the society was in 
1853. 

In 1851 the Adrian Horticultural Society was formed and has 
maintained itself until now, in good working condition. A few 
years ago it widened its name and boundaries, and is now known 
as the Lenawee County Horticultural Society. 

The first State organization of this character was called together 
for organization at Jonesville, Hillsdale county, and started out 
under the title of the Michigan Nurserymen and Fruit Growers 
Association, in September, 1853. An adjourned meeting at 
xVdrian the following February completed the organization, and 
its first officers were J. C. Holmes, Detroit, president; .T. T. Blois, 
Jonesville, secretary. The society did some good work but died 
an untimely death in 1856. 

Regarding the next venture in the way of organization, Prof. 
Holmes says: "The Nurserymen and Fruit Growers Association 
having been winter killed, and there being a call for an organiza- 
tion of similar character, in September, 1857, a meeting was held 
at Jackson, with T. T. Lyon of Plymouth as temporary chairman 
and V. B. Merum of Moscow, as temporary .secretary.'" 

At this meeting a constitution and by-laws were adopted, and 
permanent officers elected, as follows: President, H. tj. Wells, 
Kalamazoo ; secretary, R. F. Johnstone, Detroit ; treasurer, P. 
B. Loomis, Jackson. Directors : Hiram Walker, Detroit ; D. 
K. Underwood, Adrian ; John T. Blois, Jonesville ; Linas Gone, 
Troy ; G. W. Nelson, Grand Rapids, Wm. Bort, Niles. 

Tlu" followiniT .laiiuarv the .society hehl a trrand exhibition and 



426 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

meetiug for discussion, at Kalamazoo, which was commented upon 
most favorably by the agricultural press of the entire country. 

This society like its predecessor, had a lingering existence for a 
few years, holding its last meeting just at the opening of the civil 
war. 

Very soon after this several county societies were formed in 
various parts of the State, known as agricultural and horticul- 
tural societies, their only object being the making of an autumn 
exhibit. In 1869 the most flourishing horticultural society in the 
State was that of Spring Lake, Ottawa county. For some years 
this society had held regular meetings, and this year made a 
grand exhibit of its fruit products, at which there was a large 
attendance and the discussions were interesting and instructive. 
A careful census of the acreage into fruits, and the product there- 
from, was taken under the auspices of this organization, by Mr, 
W. G. Sinclair ; the publication of which gave this locality a 
great boom. 

The first meeting called to organize a State society, wliicli 
has grown into the present efficient State horticultural society, 
was convened in Grand Rapids, February 11th, 1870. The 
following temporary officers were chosen: 

President, S. L. Fuller; vice-presidents, L. S. Scranton, S. 
S. Bailey; secretary, A. T. Linderman; treasurer, E. U. 
Knapp. 

Articles of association were adopted the 26t]i of the same 
month, and througli the influence of Henry S. Clubb, one of the 
charter members, who was a State Senator, a law was enacted 
for the incorporation of horticultural societies, and the Michi- 
gan State Pomological Society was the first association to take 
corporate form under it. 

The Legislature of 1870-1 provided for the publication of 
the transactions of the society, and from that day to this the 
society has made steady and rapid growth; 

For two years monthly meetings were held in a small room 
in Grand Rapids, the use of which was donated by S. L. 
Fuller. In June, 1872, the society showed its right to be 
called a State society, by holding a grand meeting at St. 
Joseph, and has since held quarterly meetings without a break. 

At a meeting at Battle Creek, June 18th, 1880, the name of 
the society was changed to the Michigan State Horticultural 



ADDRESS OF HON. CHARLES W. GARFIELD. 427 

Society, for the purjiose of acconliiicj the name witli tlie work 
of the organization, which covered the entire fiehl of horticul- 
ture. At tliis time tht're was inaugurated a systt-ni of l)ranch 
societies, l)y which, in any h>cality, tiiere couhl be organized a 
horticultural or ))oinological so(riety, connecting itself with the 
State society; and its members become, by virtue of this 
connection, members of the parent society, and entitled to all 
of its privileges. Under this arrangement thirty-two societies 
liave been formed in the State. 

The following comprises the list of these organizations and 
the names of the secretaries: 

Name of Society. Secretary. P. O. Address. 

Allegan Co. Poni'l Society G. H. LaFleur Millgrove. 

Barry Co. Hort. Society James C. Woodruff Hastings. 

Bay Co. Hort. Society : Will. H. Fennell, Bay City. 

Berrien Co. Hort. Society A. J. Knisely Benton Harbor. 

Benzie Co. Hort. Society J. W. Van Deman Benzonia. 

Eaton Co. Hort. Society S. R. Fuller Eaton Rapids. 

Genesee Co. Hort. Society Ed H. Rockwood Flint. 

Grand Haven Hort. Society C. E. Russell Grand Haven. 

Grand River Valley Hort. Society G. C. Bennett Grand Kapids. 

Holland Colony Hort. Society I. Marsilge Holland. 

Hillsdale Co. Hort. 'Society L. B. Agard Litchfield. 

Ingham Co. Hort. Society C. B. Stebblns Lansing. 

Ionia Co. Hort. Society J. II. Kidd, Ionia. 

Jackson Co. Hort. Society R. T. McNaughton Jackson. 

Lenawee Co. Hort. Society D. G. Ediniston Adrian. 

Lenawee & Hillsdale Hort. Society. . . Mrs. Hattie C. Russell Hudson. 

Lawton Pom'l Society CD. Lawton Lawton. 

Lapeer Co. Hort. Society ..H. W. Davis Lapeer. 

Mason Co. Hort. Society L. W. Rose Ludington. 

Macomb Co. Hort. Society Alex. Grant Utica. 

Manistee Co. Hort. Society J. V. P. Mukantz Manistee. 

Muskegon Co. Hort. Society H. H. Holt Muskegon. 

Oakland Co. Hort. Society James S. Bradford Pontiac. 

Osceola Co. Hort. Society W. L. Stoddard Evart. 

Oceana Co. Pom'l Society A. E. Souter Shelby. 

Saugatuck & Ganges Pom'l Society. ..Rev. J. F. Taylor, Prest. . . .Douglas. 

Spring Lake Hort. Society J. H. Farmer Spring I.Ake. 

South Haven & Casco Pom'l Society. .A. G. GuUey. . South Haven. 

Washtenaw Co. Pom'l Society. .7. Ganzhorn Ann Arbor. 

Wayland Hort. Society C. R. Davison Wayland. 

Wayne Co. Hort. Society D. F. Griswold Northvlll.-. 

Wexford Co. Hort Society E. F. Sawyer Cadillac. 

SOME OF THE WORKERS. 

Even a brief resume of Michigmrs liorticultural jtrogress 
wotild l)e incomplete without naming at least a few persons 
who have been active in the promotion of hortiriilt uic here. 



428 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Among those who are gone who brouglit a wealth of experi- 
ence, and who were always willing to impart it to others, were 
George Parmelee, of St. Joseph and later of Grand Traverse; 
Wm. Bort, of Niles; Edward Bradfield of Ada; G. W. Dick- 
inson, Grand Rapids; John Gilbert, of Ovid; George W. 
Towles, Benton Harbor; S. O. Knapp, of Jackson; David Allen, 
of Plymouth; Abel Page, of Grand Rapids; S. B. Peck, of 
Muskegon; Jeremiah Brown, of Battle Creek, and J. Webster 
Childs, of Ypsilanti. 

Among those who used their pens most effectively were R. 
F. Johnstone and J. P. Thompson. Mr. Johnstone, as editor 
of the Michigan Farmer, freely gave the columns of his paper 
for the improvement of our horticulture, and in the files of 
this valuable paper are found the most complete history of the 
development from year to year of our special horticultural 
capabilities. Mr. Thompson had for years, his leading pur- 
j)0se, the advertisement of Michigan as a great fruit-growing 
State; his enthusiasm was unbounded and his ability of the 
best. 

Many gentlemen who have gone from us, although not hor- 
ticulturists, by their inrtuence, aided materially, during their 
lives, in promoting our great pomological interests. Among 
them may be named Judge H. G. Wells, of Kalamazoo; Hunter 
Savidge, of Spring Lake; Governor John J. Bagley, of Detroit; 
John Ball, Grand Rapids; Frederick Hall, Ionia; F. J. Little- 
john, of Allegan; R. E. Trowbridge, of Birmingham. 

I would like to make a list of men now living who have done 
valiant service for horticulture by experimenting and impart- 
ing the results of their work, by maintaining organizations, by 
ever having their shoulders at the wheel. But my limits 
forbid. 

However, two men I will name in this connection, who 
should be honored above all others because of their unselfish 
devotion to the interests of Michigan horticulture, extending 
through the half century, the close of which we now celebrate. 

T. T. Lyon, the honored President of our State Horticul- 
tural Society, has given the best years of his life for the good 
of the pursuit which captivated him in his early life. In his 
life-long experience, in his constant vigilance to see that 
Michigan's promises and peculiar capabilities were brought to 



ADDKK88 OF HON. OIIAULKS \V. (i.VKKIELD. 4li'J 

the fioiil, ;uul in his devoted liberality which he has brought to 
bear uiton the progress of the science of pomology, we are 
largely indebted for the advanced standing which our State 
has taken among her sister States, in matters of pomology. 

To Mr. IJenjamin Hathaway, of Cass County, we are in- 
debted for a long line of careful experiments, the results of 
whieh he lias freely given to his fellows. And not only this, 
lull Ik' has eontributed not only his results Init his experience 
in securing the results, which is invaluable to planters in our 
State. 

Mr. Hathaway has been a pioneer in all the branches of hor- 
ticultui-e, and did not neglect to set an example to others when 
he saw the unwarranted destruction of our timber, of how 
rapidly, under skillful management, the timber could be made 
again to cover the land, restoring in time the lost climatic con- 
ditions. 

A (iLIMPSK AT STATISTICS. 

Unfortunately those who have in charge the gathering of 
statistics, have not seen fit, in our "State, to go into the details 
of horticulture, so that it is imi)Ossible to give exact figures of 
the aggregate yield of any of the orchard or garden products. 
In truth, market garden produce, which has grown rapidly into 
prominence during the past fifteen years, is given no place on 
the blanks of our Supervisors who gather the crop statistics. 
In a few localities, individuals and societies have carefully 
gathered data, and from these T have made the following notes 
and estimates: 

An apple tree in bearing in the State of Michigan, is equival- 
ent to an investment of ^S^S.OO at 7 per cent, interest, and a 
peach tree in a reasonably favorable locality may be represented 
bv at least $20.00, l)earing a similar rate of interest. It requirt\s 
greater skill to grow an apple tree than a piece of wheat, and 
the marketing of fruit is a more precarious business than 
wheat; but the profits are better, and a plant once made is a 
permanency for a series of years. 

The aggregate apple crop of our State for iss.") approxi- 
niatetl 5,000,000 bushels. In western Michigan, where the 
peai'h crop was good, it was not uncommon to have a peach 
orchard pay :i net profit of $300 per acre. The small fruit area 
is trettinir to be enormous in our State, and oiu- hundred busli- 



430 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

els of strawberries per acre is considered l>ut a small yield: 
while tbe same amount is often raised of raspberries and black- 
berries. 

In a single year the County of Berrien, has been known to 
ship 29,327 bushels of strawberries, 5,067 bushels of rasp- 
berries, 10,787 bushels of blackberries, 201,611 bushels of 
peaches, and 16,633 barrels of apples. 

This was when peaches were most abundant, and before the 
yellows had ravaged the orchards; but with the decreased pro- 
duction of peaches, the small fruits have increased. 

South Haven has shipped in a recent year $155,012 worth of 
fruit from June to December. The apple product of Genesee 
county, over near the other side of the State, in 1882, aggre- 
gated $105,000. We might multiply these figures by taking 
the statistics of other parts of the State. The market garden 
products aggregate an enormous sum, as they are grown about 
our large cities. And the flower trrfde is growing rapidly. 

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID. 

The horticulturists of our State have caught the spirit of the 
age, and have not hid their products under a bushel. Wher- 
ever opportunity has offered, we have j^laced in great exposi- 
tions the products of our orchards, and to some purpose; while 
other States have come to Michigan for material at times to 
embellish their pomological exhibits, when advertising the 
capabilities of their own limits, we have had no need to go 
beyond our own borders to secure material that has commanded 
the praise of the nation. 

Regarding the display from Michigan orchards at the 
national exhibition of the American Pomological Society in 
1875, the committee on awards said: "Michigan made a 
grand exhibition under the name of the State Pomological 
Society. Her fruits were from ten different counties, and a 
large number of exhibitors, embracing very many handsome 
lots of aj>ples, and the finest plums on exhibition, a large 
variety of grapes; the largest blackberries ever seen by the 
members of the committee, and figs grown in the open air at 
South Haven and ripened on the balmy shores of Lake 
Michigan. The entiri^ display covered 900 plates and occupied 
much the largest space of any State." 



ADDKK8S OF HON. ('IIAKI.E8 W. GAKFIKLI). -131 

At tlio centennial exhibition in Pliiladi-lpliia, in IcSTti, the 
exhibit of long keeping apples, made in May by our State, so 
far eclipsed the displays from other States that many of their 
exhibits were unopened. 

In 1880 the exhibit of fruits made by our State Horticultural 
Society at the biennial meeting of the American Pomo- 
logical Society, in Boston, Mass., was pronounced by the hon- 
ored president of the society. Col. Marshall P. Wilder, to be 
"the glory of the entire exhibit," and again in 1885, when 
this great society came into Michigan, we made a show of fruit 
that astonished the delegates from everywhere abroad, and the 
representatives from every part of the Union were impressed 
as never before, of the wonderful pomological caj)abilities of 
the Peninsular State. The medals held by the Michigan State 
Horticultural Society testify to the success of all these and 
other competitive exhibitions of horticultural products made 
by our State. 

^IICIIIGAN FOR HOMES. 

But it is in connection with the rural homes of Michigan 
that we see the most striking influence of horticulture in our 
State. 

Michigan is emphatically a State in which to build pci'ina- 
nent homes; homes that are independent, attractive, in which, 
through the aid of an advanced horticulture, there is engen- 
dered a s]»ii-it of ipiiet satisfaction that gives i)ermanence and 
continuous prosperity to a population. These conditions are 
secureil through our climatic con<litions, and the character of 
the peoj)le who have K'd the van. Our pioneers, who laid the 
foundations of our i)resent orchards, came largely from New 
York, where they had oidy been taught the value of the fruits 
of the orcharils and gardens as home accom})aninu'nts. 

THK LESSON OF THE YEARS. 

The surveyor, as he runs out long lines that are to be the 
future bou!idaries of sections, townshi})s, counties and common- 
wealths, is not only concerned about the direction he is to take 
in advance, but occasionally reverses his transit and corrects 
liis line by earefully taken i)acksights. So we to-day call a 
halt for a uionient, and witii shaded eyes peer back through 
the years of progressive tlevelojnnent of the material interests 



432 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

of Michigan; not simply to bring into view the steps of 
progress as a matter of self gratification, nor to humble 
ourselves by a glance at our small beginnings — but for the 
more worthy purpose of correcting our lines, and by the 
elimination of errors, strengthen foundations for future 
progress and prosperity. 

The lesson of the hour for our State, as far as horticulture is 
concerned, is that bonanza farming will add nothing to our 
prosperity. Small farms that are readily converted into 
delightful homes, by bringing into them the refinements of 
education, and about them the attractions of modern horticul- 
ture, will be the foundation of Michigan's future prosperity. 

Any country that is especially adapted to horticultural 
pui'suits has a permanent advertisement to home seekers, the 
details of which will appeal to the common sense of any who 
are seeking a permanent location for building a home. The 
advantages which mark a region as adapted to the prosecution 
of a broad horticulture, are just those which one seeks when 
he intends to settle for life. The products of horticulture are 
the most delightful home accompaniments, and in the develop- 
ment of some branch of horticulture, no matter what the 
principal occupation of life may be, one gets a wholesome 
satisfaction that brightens the seasons and softens the declining 
years. 

But in our own State we are living far beneath our possi- 
bilities, until we recognize so fully our delightful conditions as 
to make the most of them in the preservation of the natural 
beauty and protection of a reasonable area of forest growth; 
in the embellishment of our school grounds, public parks, 
churchyards and cemeteries, and the wealth of native plants 
that are indigenous to our borders, in the growing of the 
fruits, flowers and vegetables about every homestead that will 
make labor more attractive, home more delightful and life a 
richer boon. 

The native beauty of our peninsula, which led to the selection 
of the Latin motto that is written on our coat of arms, loses 
nothing in application, through the development of the 
resources of our State, in support of a large poj)ulation, 
provided there is an adequate appreciation of the value of 
embellishing each individual home with the attributes that 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 433 

may be found about us, and thi<>ui,'li the aid of a knowledge of 
advanced horticulture, it is made to reflect the native beauty of 
our Michigan hindseapc, togetlier with the other refinements 
which accojupanv an advanced civilization tempered with a 
patriotic benevolence. 



BRIEF MILITARY HISTORY OF MICHIGAN AS A 
TERRITORY AND AS A STATE. 

Compiled by JNO. RORERTSON, Adjutant-General. 

" Land of the West: green forest land: 
Thine early day for deeds is famed, 
Which ni historic paf^e shall stand 
Till bravery is no longer named." 

The vast Northwest Territory, unbroken in native grandeur, 
unsurpassed in forest, river and lake, with a fertile soil, 
unei]ualed in rich minerals hidden in the unexplored dejiths of 
the rock. Once the roaming and battle ground of the nomadic 
tribes of the American savage, the pasture land of the elk and 
the cariboo, now covered with productive fields and inhabited 
by a people of intelligence with a high degree of civilization, 
living in comfortable dwellings and mansions, indicating thrift, 
pros])erity and wealth, the result of industry, enterprise and 
energy. Thus the western wilderness has been transformed 
into rural homes and villages, populous cities and great States. 

The martial career and consequent military history of a 
State largely depends on surroundings, circumstances and 
events, which bring into historic notice her military forces, by 
becoming engaged from time to time in active service, either 
in protecting her people from hostile incursions, supjjressing 
sedition, insurrection or other internal commotions, aiding in 
the enforcement of law and maintaining peace, or defending 
the General (-lovernment against rebellion or foreign invasion, 
or in punishing its enemies for insult to its flag, or infringe- 
ment on its national rights. 

Peculiar surroundings, uncommon circumstances and stirring 

events, in the land of Michigan, gave her at a very primitive 

day experiences of a militarj' character, which, to some extent, 

have been periodiciilly continuous, consecpiently inculcating, 

28 



434 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

not only in the earlier inhabitants, but in those who have fol- 
lowed, much of a military character, both in habit and spirit, 
more or less encouraged by the almost continual example of 
regular troops in their midst, and their consequent personal 
association with them, thereby commencing at an early day an 
interesting military record and history which have been con- 
tinuous up to the pi'esent time, equal if not surpassing that of 
any other State. Although her earlier military career was 
limited, both in service and results, yet reasonably creditable 
under the circumstances, her later service, consequent to the 
great war for the Union, was substantially extensive, most 
effective, and conspicuously gallant and brilliant. 

All the territory now comprising the State of Michigan was 
at one time owned and inhabited exclusively by Indian tribes, 
and the land and forest lay sleeping in their original solitude. 
In due time, however, the energetic and persevering French 
pioneers toiled their way westward, and after traversing much 
land and water, reached what is now Michigan, and beholding 
with a jealous and envious love her boundless forests, beautiful 
rivers and unrivaled lakes, established their homes in the wil- 
derness. 

At the Falls of St. Mary's, in 1G71, representatives of the 
Indian tribes from the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the Lakes, 
and even the Red River, met in convention, and veteran offi- 
cers from the armies of France, intermingled here and there 
with a Jesuit missionary, a cross having been raised, and also 
a cedar 'post, on which the French lilies were inscribed, 
intended as a substitute for a Hag, the first symbol of govern- 
ment established on Michigan territory. The representatives 
of (he savage hordes were then informed that they were under 
the protection of the Freni;h King, and the lands were formally 
taken possession of by M. de Lusson, on behalf of his Govern- 
ment, where a rude post was afterwards established. 

In August, 1070, old Fort Mackinac was built by Robert de 
la Salle, a Jesuit pioneer who had turned his attentions to the 
French colonies in America, and in November of that year 
built one at the mouth of the St. Joseph river on Lake Michi- 
gan, which he called Fort Miami, now known as St. Joseph. 
In 1680 the post was burned by deserters from Fort Crevecoeur 
of the Illinois, on their wav to Mackinac. 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN UOBEKTSON. 435 

Early in 1700 the French Jesuits placed a mission and the 
French Government built and garrisoned a fort on the St. 
Joseph river, about fifty miles from its mouth, afterwards 
known as Fort St. Joseph. In 1761, after the capitulation of 
Montreal by the French in 1760, a detachment of the 60th 
British Regiment relieved the French troops and raised tlie 
English tiag. Two years after some of Pontiac's warriors 
attacked the garrison of fourteen, in command of an Ensign, 
plundering it, killing the Commander and eleven men, and 
sending the three men left as prisoners to Detroit. This fort 
a few years later was again occupied b)^ British troops, who 
were not molested until in October, 1777, when one Thomas 
Brady, a resident of Cahokia, in Illinois, organized a party of 
sixteen volunteers and crossed the prairies to St. Joseph, sur- 
prised the fort at night, attacked and defeated the garrison of 
twenty British regulars, and captured a quantity of merchan- 
dise, but on their return were overtaken by a detachment of 
British soldiers aad Indian allies at the Calumet river, not far 
from the site of Chicago, and were completely routed. 

In 1778 three hundred French and Indians under Paulette 
Meilett, the founder of Peoria, Illinois, marched across the 
country, attacked Fort St. Joseph, defended by English troops 
with cannon, seized all the Indian goods stored there, and sent 
the garrison to Canada. When Meilett left, the English 
returned and were again in possession. 

The Spanish Government, then holding the territory border- 
ing on the west bank of the Mississippi from New Orleans to 
what is now St. Louis, and at the same time laying claim to the 
country as far east as the Ohio river, was preparing to 
strengthen her pretensions and include in her territory what 
was known as the Northwest. In January, 1780, the Spani- 
ards sent forth an expedition from St. Louis, set on foot under 
the direction of Don Francisco C'ravat, a Spanish Colonel of 
infantry. This force was in command of Spanish officers, and 
was made up of sixty-five militiajnen, thirty of whom were 
Spanish, and the remainder sujiposed to be of French birth, but 
all sworn subjects of the Spanish Government, with a band of 
sixty Indian allies, believed to have been Pottowatomies. 
The object of the expedition being to strike a blow at Eng- 
land, then the foe of botli France and Spain, by the capture of 



436 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

tlie British fort St. Joseph, said to have been located one mile 
west of the present city of Niles, and at this time the nearest 
British fortification to St. Louis. The command marched 
across Illinois and through Michigan, flying the flag of Spain, 
and on reaching the fort the few English traders and soldiers 
defending it were totally unprepared for the sudden attack 
which made them prisoners, and through Don Eugenia Pourn6 
in command, was surrendered Fort St. Joseph to the King of 
Spain, and the English flag gave place to the standard of His 
Most Catholic Majesty, while the force remained there. The 
fort was plundered, most of the provisions and goods were given 
to the Indians, the remainder, with the magazine and store- 
houses, were destroyed. The command remained but a few 
days for rest and refreshments, and then commenced their 
homeward journey to St. Louis, which was accomplished with- 
out incident, carrying with them in triumph the English flag, 
which was delivered to Don Francisco Cravat in testimony of 
the successful execution of his orders. 

In Jul)', 1701, the first permanent settlement on Michigan 
soil was made on what is now the site of Detroit, then an 
Indian village. 

' ' Here warrior to liis standard flew, 
Not knowing what his future doom; 
And, calling on his Manitou, 
Would plunge into the forest gloom." 

The several Indian tribes then inhabiting the country in the 
vicinity of this village seemed to have each a name for it in 
their own language, most of them, however, indicating that a 
" Strait " was the name intended. 

It was chosen by Antoine de la Motte Cadillac, who had 
been granted by Louis XIV of France a tract of fifteen square 
acres of land in the wilderness, where he landed with one hun- 
dred men from Montreal and constructed a fort. Thus was 
acquired a very limited white population made up of fur trad- 
ers, trappers, voi/<u/etirs, with some missionaries, who there 
erected a fort, wliile one was also built where Fort Gratiot 
now stands, one at Mackinac, one at St. .Joseph Island, and 
one at Sault Ste. .Marie. 

These forts established at long distances apart, at points 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 437 

along the lake frontier, are most of them now occupied as forts. 
Five times their flags have been changed, while they have been 
under three different governments. Tlie French occupation 
commenced in 1671, and continued until 1700, when they were 
surrendered to the English and occupied until ITitti, wlien they 
were evacuated and garrisoned by the Americans. In their 
day, flying respectively, first, the fleur de lis, then the proud 
flag of France, then the haughty crosses of Saint George and 
Saint Andrew, which was then the flag of England, "that has 
stood a thousand years, tlie battle and the breeze, '' and then 
that bright galaxy of stars, beautifully combined with the 
national colors, the rod, white and blue, the flag of America, 
destined perpetually to float in brilliancy and truth o'er land 
and sea, the emblem of liberty. 

The Northwest Territory, when it was claimed and occupied 
by France, was a vast ranging ground for the numerous Indian 
tribes, who roamed over it in all the listless indolence of their 
savage independence, so characteristic of the Indian and Indian 
life. 

The Indians and half-breeds were not favorable to what they 
considered the encroachments of the whites, hence their loca- 
tion at various points on their territory was not acceptable, 
often leading to threatenings and hostile opposition with occa- 
sional attacks. On the I3th of May, 1712, the Foxes, consid- 
ered the Ishmaelites of the wilderness, in laige force in league 
with the Iroquois made an attack on Detroit, bent on its entire 
destruction. It was then garrisoned by M. Du Buisson with 
twenty French soldiers, aided by Indian allies, including the 
coureurs de bois, or rangers of the woods, lawless but prac- 
ticed and skilled marksmen. Tlie Indians after a long and se- 
vere fight, struggling to the last, were defeated with great loss 
ami driven from the field in utter confusion. 

This was recognized at the time not only as an im])ortant 
battle but as a very severe one, as the attacking Indians exhib- 
ited a degree of courage and endurance unequalled by any 
Indian tribe since that time, while it was also important, as a 
defeat of the French would undoubtedly have involved the de- 
struction of the place and most likely the massacre of at least 
a portion of the white population. The attack was made dur- 
ing the absence t)f the Otlawas, the Pottawatamies and Ilurons, 



4-38 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

friendly Indians, rendering the garrison comparatively weak ; 
but it did not corne unawares, as the commander, on informa- 
tion, had summoned portions of the friendly Indians within 
reach to his reinforcement. Soon after the attack commenced 
they began to arrive and were admitted inside the fort, when 
preparations were made for an active and effective defence. On 
discovering the force of friendly Indians engaged, the Foxes 
retreated to the adjoining forest, where they entrenched in 
camp. The French, backed by their allies, in order to force 
their enemies from their position, erected a block-house within 
range of the hostile camp, when a heavy fire was opened on 
them and a close siege commenced and continued until, driven 
to desperation from thirst and hunger, all their supplies being 
cut off, they rushed from their stronghold, attacked the French 
and friendly Indians and took position in a house close by, 
which they fortified, where they were again attacked with 
French cannon and driven back into their former intrench- 
raent. Ascertaining that their former league was proving un- 
successful the Foxes asked the French commander for peace, 
which he declined to accord them. Feeling much insulted at the 
denial, they attacked the fort and houses with showers of blazing 
arrows, kindling the dry roofs into flames, but most of them 
were saved by the use of wet skins. The desperate fighting of 
the Foxes so discouraged the French commander, that had it 
not been for re-assurances of the Indians of more aid he would 
have abandoned Detroit and retired to Mackinac ; being sat- 
isfied with the promise, however, he determined on further fight, 
and advancing from the fort, delivered on their intrenchments 
a deadly fire, when they were soon filled with dead and dying. 
After again suing for peace, but before any capitulation was 
effected, the Foxes during a storm at midnight retreated tow- 
ards Lake St. Clair, having been engaged in the siege with more 
or less fighting for nineteen days. The discovery of their flight 
led to their immediate pursuit, and they were soon overtaken 
and attacked in intrenched camps, the commencement being 
rather in their favor. This fight lasted for three days ending 
with ap})lying a field battery which soon reduced the works and 
scattered the Indians. 

After the attack on Detroit, the territory remained in com- 
parative peace, although the two great powers, France and 



ADDRESS OF GP:N. JOHN ROBERTSON. 439 

England, struggling tlirdiigh intrigiu' with the Iiuliun.s, had 
become engaged in a desperate contest lor the supremacy, 
the first to hold, and the latter to obtain, douiinion. This 
condition of aifairs continued until 1757, when the British 
Government projected a campaign of a very formidable char- 
acter, and soon after with an army of 12,000 men, com- 
manded by General Amherst, invaded the French colonies in 
America, and after the fall of Quebec, under the capitulation 
of 17G0, took military possession of all the forts held by the 
French both in Canada and on what was known as the Ameri- 
can side. 

While a detachment of English tro(j ps was advancing to 
occupy the fort at Detroit under that capitulation, a very 
singular symbol was made use of by the French otficer in 
charge. Being indisposed to give up possession, he deter- 
mined on resistance, and with this in view, he collected a body 
of Indians to assist him. Being aware that the Indians were 
liable to be strongly influenced by symbols, he erected a pole, 
placing thereon the image of a man's head, and on this he put 
a crow, telling the Indians that the head repi'esented the 
English, and the crow himself, meaniiior that the French would 
scratch out the brains of the English. They did not believe 
him, however, but were of the opinion that the reverse would 
be the case. Wiien the French officer gave up the fort the 
Indians loudly shouted in derision, and rejoiced that their 
opinion had been verified. 

The Englisii continued in peaceable possession of these forts 
until .\j)ril, 1 70;^, when a large combination of Indian tribes, 
known as the conspiracy of Pontiac, was organized by the 
celebrated chief unfavorable to the British possession. Pon- 
tiac having been led by the French to believe that the inten- 
tion of the English was to drive him and his people from their 
lands, considered them as dangerous intruders, and for the 
purpose of forming a conspiracy to wage war against them, 
assembled a grand council of Indians at the River Aux Ecorse, 
where he addressed them in person, telling them, among other 
matters, that the British were their natural and inveterate 
enemies, and that the Great Spirit had directed that they must 
be removed from their possessions. At the same time he 
exhibited a war belt which he said the French king had sent 



440 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

him from beyond the sea, with orders to drive the British from 
the land and make way for tlie return of the French; con- 
sequently he commenced distributing war belts among the 
principal tribes on the borders of the lakes and formed a line 
of operations of more than a thousand miles along their waters, 
with the intention of concentrating forces at various points 
for the purpose of attacking the British forts. Soon the In- 
dians abandoned their hunting grounds and camps for the war 
path and repaired to the frontier. Then followed general and 
simultaneous attacks on most of the forts. Detroit being among 
the number, and a most important point, was assailed and be- 
sieged on May 10th by a large force of Indians under Pontiac in 
person, while it was defended by Major Gladwin, the British 
commander, with one hundred and twenty-two men and eight 
officers. The fort was of a square formation, surrounded by 
three rows of pickets. Most of the houses inside were pro- 
tected by the guns mounted on the works. All the inhabitants 
were provided with arms and ammunition and a place was 
reserved within the inclosure for the deposit of arms, named 
Le Cheniin du Monde, and over the gates of the fort at each of 
its corners there were small dwellings. The Beaver, an armed 
schooner moored in the river, defended the town in front. 
Pontiac intended to take the fort by surprise, and to aid him 
in his purpose proposed a council to the commandant " that 
they might brighten the chain of peace " and to avoid any 
appearance of hostile intentions had ordered a portion of his 
warriors to saw off their rifles so short that they could conceal 
them under their blankets, and under a feigned pretence to 
gain admission into the fort and massacre the garrison. The 
plot of Pontiac was exposed by an Indian woman named 
Catherine, who informed Major Gladwin of his designs. The 
Major at once took the necessary measures to meet the con- 
templated surprise by doubling the guard, and placing sen- 
tinels on the works. The flres of the Indians seen during the 
night in the vicinity, convinced the garrison that something 
was in contemplation, and the woman's story was believed to 
be true. Next morning, according to appointment, Pontiac 
repaired to the fort, accompanied by his warriors. On advanc- 
ing, he discovered on the works a greater number of soldiers 
than usual and all the officers fully armed. Having entered 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 441 

the Council House, he opened the tliscussion with a friendly 
speecli, hut as lie progressed he became very vehement, and at 
the time when the woman said his designs were to be uncovered 
by the exposure of the war belt and the uprising of his war- 
riors, the Governor and his officers drew their swords, and the 
clatter of an armed force was heard outside, when Pontiac 
discovered that he was the party surprised, although he con- 
tinued perfectly calm and unmoved. The Commandant still 
more surprised him by at once charging him with treason, 
and in order to convince him of his knowledge of his plot, 
took from under the blanket of one of his Indians the short- 
ened rifle. Me also ordered him and his warriors instantly to 
leave the fort, as on discovery of his treason the soldiers 
would show them no mercy, but at the same time assured them 
of protection while leaving. The warriors on leaving the fort 
fully evinced their hostile intentions by turning and firing on 
the garrison, and then collecting in larger numbers around the 
fort, continued to tire from the shelter of the nearest houses ; 
but they were soon shelled and burned. Still a constant fire 
was continued on the fort from a low ridge which overlooked 
the pickets. An attempt was made to burn buildings with 
blazing arrows, but did not succeed, a Jesuit priest forbidding 
it, as it would be displeasing to the Great Spirit. Then resort 
was liad to making a breach in the pickets, in which Major 
Gladwin aided by cutting them on the inside, thereby weak- 
ening them so that it was easily effected, when the fort was at 
once tilled with Indians, but no sooner was this done than the 
discharge of a brass camion which had been trained on them, 
made terrible havoc. After this the fort was merely block- 
aded and its supplies cut off, but which brought great suffer- 
ing on the garrison. The loss of the Indians has not been 
given ; but among the British, Sir Robert Devers and Captain 
Robertson were killed, and their l)odies boiled and eaten ; 
while from a portion of the skin of the arm of the latter, a 
tobacco pouch was made. 

Major Campbell, who liad tlien been assigned to the com- 
mand of the fort, was inveigle<l into a pretended peaceful 
interview with Pont iac, and umler a promise of being returned 
in safety. \Vhen in his power, however, he informed him that 
his life should only be spared on condition that the fort be sur- 



442 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

rendered. The demand was nut complied with, and Campbell 
was held as a hostage and afterwards suffered death by a blow 
from a tomahawk in the hands of an Ottawa, who had come 
from Mackinac for the purpose, and who sought revenge for 
the death of his uncle, a chief of that tribe, who had lost his 
life in the siege of Mackinac. 

The savages, having lost heavily, and finding all their 
attempts to destroy the fort unavailing, endeavored to get the 
French settlers as allies, but failed. They then fell back on 
Bloody Bridge, now known as Bloody Run, where they were 
attacked by Captain Dalzell with about 250 men, part of a 
reinforcement of 300, which had just arrived in gunboats from 
Niagara, when one of the most severe and bloody fights took 
place known in Indian warfare, in which the British troops 
were repulsed, retreating under the protection of their gun- 
boats to the fort, with a loss of 19 killed, including their (com- 
mander, and 42 wounded. 

While these scenes were passing at Detroit old Fort Macki- 
nac, with a population of about thirty families and garrisoned 
by ninety-three English officers and soldiers, in command of 
Major Etherington, was attacked in June, 1763, by Indians, 
then numerous in that vicinity, who were determined on 
getting possession of the fort and massacring both soldiers 
and citizens. They therefore planned a scheme to gain 
entrance to the fort by throwing a ball over the pickets while 
engaged at a game of ball in view of the commander and 
soldiers, who were mostly outside, and then rushing in with 
their rifies, that had been purposely shortened so that they 
might be concealed under their blankets. This they success- 
fully accomplished, and instantly raised their war-cry and 
commenced the massacre of the unarmed, scalping, cutting to 
pieces, and even drinking their blood, and not until most of 
their victims within reach had been killed ()r scalped did they 
cease their horrid work. The fort was burned to the ground, 
seventy of the soldiers were killed, and to complete their 
sanguinary deed many of them were boiled and eaten by the 
savages, the Indians after the slaughter retiring to the Island 
of Mackinac, while those spared were all released. 

The Indians in the confederacy, perceiving that they could 
no longer contend against so powerful a foe, laid down their 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROIiEKTSON. 443 

arms, and thus the war in the teiritory for the time J)einir was 
brought to a close. Of Pontiac, after his discomiituie but 
little is certainly known. Disappointed and m(>rtili(«l at the 
failure of his ])lans, he retired to Illinois. 

" 1 will go to my teat and lie down in despair; 
I will paint me witii black and will sever my hair; 
I will sit on the shore, where the hurricane blows, 
And reveal to the God of the tempest my woes." 

The character of Pontiac was bold and strongly marked, 
excelled by none of his race in courage, strengtli and energy. 
He possessed traits which pointed him out for a leader ; undis- 
mayed by difficulties, and far-seeing and comprehensive in his 
plans, he fought from a sense of justice and in defence of the 
rich domain which had come to him from his ancestors. He 
was assassinated about the year 1767, l»y an Indian of the 
Peoria tribe. 

The Indian insurrection having l)een entirely (juelled, the 
English adopted a system of conciliatory measures to secure 
the good will of the disaffected tribes, and continued to pursue 
the same general policy of the French regarding government 
and trade, while the forts still continued to be garrisoned by 
troops. 

During the struggle of the American revolution, and up to 
the end of the war, the Indians within the borders of Mic higan 
were, under the inHuence of the English government, employed 
by British commanders to harass the American settlements 
without power of defence. In the vicinity (jf Detroit and 
Mackinac they were furnished with arms and ammunition, and 
were despatched to pillage, burn, massacre and scalp, and on 
their return received the sti|)ulated price for scalps. Nothing 
of military interest had occurred for several years in the terri- 
tory after the Indian insurrection, aiid not until 1700, when 
American Independence was declared and the forts were all 
surrendered to the United States. Detroit and Mackinac 
being the principal posts, the former was taken possession of 
on July 1 1th of that year, by Captain Porter, with troops from 
the army of General Ilamtramck, then in the Miami Valley, 
when the American flag was raised for the first time on its 
ramparts and the fort passed (juietly into the possession of the 
United States. 



444 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

The white population from this on began to increase, but 
became very mixed as to nationalities of the inhabitants, while 
the accessions were still largely made up of the trader, 
trapper and voyageur, but having more of the American 
element, possessing more energy, greater force of moral char- 
acter and personal courage. 

" I hear the far-off 'ooyageurs horn, 

I see the Yankee's trail, 
His foot on every mountain-pass. 

On every stream his sail."' 

The whites, distrustful of the friendly Indians on their own 
border, and of the strength of the small detachments of troops 
so far apart, and without means of rapid transportation to reach 
them speedily in the event of a sudden uprising, and especially 
as the whole ('anadian frontier was swarming with Indians of 
a very doubtful friendship, being more or less encouraged in 
misciiief by the British, were compelled to organize and arm 
themselves as best they could for mutual defence, establishing 
early on Michigan soil a serai-military service, which neces- 
sarily became continuous, inculcating preparation and a habit 
of ceaseless watchfulness, and guarding, in expectation of 
unforeseen attacks at any moment, day or night, and thus, 
from necessity of self-preservation, they became in fact effi- 
cient citizen-soldiers in all but name and appearance. These 
brave and hardy traders, trappers and voyageurs, French, Eng- 
lish and American, many of them of the highest intelligence, 
were men inured to hardship, looking danger, tight and mas- 
sacre in the face every day of their lives, became prepared at 
all times to meet either. 

MICHIGAN ! 

" Thine early day ! it nursed a band 
Of men who ne'er their lineage shamed; 
The h-on-uerved, the bravely good, 
Who neither spared nor lavished blood." 

On botli the American and Canadian frontiers were found 
a class of men of very questionable cliaracter, who might be 
designated as middle-men, who acted between the whites and 
Indians, and sometimes as interpreters ; they were made up of 
whites and half-breeds with nothing to lose, but with constant 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 445 

expectation of gain ; a specimen of tlic villainous compound 
of the frontier braggart, called liy the Inilians Shaw-go-dah, or 
boaster, and the confirmed idler, bold in a bar-room, but in a 
tight dodgers, yet ready at all times to agitate and incite hos- 
tilities between the traders and Indians, with much damaging 
effect on the peace and prosperity of the settlements. 

The militia organizations existing under the laws of the 
Northwest and Indian Territories were very limited. Al- 
though in May, 180:^, there appears to have been a parade in 
Detroit of the First Regiment of Wayne County, which then 
included more space than the whole State of Michigan now 
does ; these parades were ordered once a year under law, and 
were in the most primitive style, the troops having to provide 
arms and equipments at their own expense, and only cavalry 
and light infantry were required to appear in uniform. 

Such appears to have been the condition of the protective 
or defensive force, aside from the small numljer of troops scat- 
tered along the frontier up to June, 1805, when Michigan be- 
came a territory with the motto, "^The shoot at length becomes 
a tree" (that of the Marquis of Waterford). covering what 
are now the State of Michigan and part of Ohio, Indiana and 
Wisconsin, with General William Hull Governor and C'om- 
mander-in-Ciiief of the militia, who was appointed March 1st, 
1805. Hull being a military man, a new impetus seems to have 
been given to military matters by the passage of aii act of 
August 30th, of that year, authorizing the Commander-iTi- 
Chief to organize the militia in divisions, brigades, regiments 
and battalions, to appoint officers therefor, and to set apart 
certain days in the year for training, to designate the uniform ; 
providing, also, that all male residents over fourteen and under 
fifty be enrolled for military duty. At the time of the passage 
of the act referred to there appears, according to official 
reports made July 9th, 1805, to have been in service, fully 
organized and equipped, two regiments of infantry and what 
was known as the Legionary Corps, made up of cavalry, 
artillery and ritlt'ineii. 

The First Regiment appears t<» liave lieen raised in that 
part of the territory adjacent \o Detroit, with A. 1>. ^V()od- 
ward as Colonel. The second in what was then designated as 
the Krie disti-ict, cinbraciiig all the territoi-v south of the 



446 MICHIGAJS's SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

River Huron, in Monroe county, commanded by Colonel 
John Anderson, while the Legionary Corps seems to have 
been made up from the x-esidents in and around Detroit, with 
Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Brush commanding. 

In addition to this force there had been organized on the 
Clinton (then called Huron) and St. Clair rivers a battalion of 
four companies, in command of Lieutenant Colonel Christian 
Clemens. 

This seems to have comprised all the organizations of a 
military character then in existence, chiefly officered by French- 
men, and they seem to have continued in service up to the 
commencement of the war of 1812, and were present at the 
surrender of Detroit, with the exception of the battalion of 
Colonel Clemens and the Second Regiment, which had been 
retained on the lower Raisin for the protection of the inhabi- 
tants against large numbers of Indians, arriving from the 
West. 

In 1806, the Indian Chief Tecumseh, with his brother, the 
Prophet, incited by the British Government, commenced the 
formation of a confederacy of tribes similar to that of Pontiac, 
to operate against the American settlements in the Indian 
country, which was finally accomplished. From that on the 
savages became restless and very troublesome to the villages of 
the whites in Michigan. In the meantime, timely preparation 
was being made by the Indians for hostile operations. Arms 
were being procured from various sources, and near the banks 
of the Kalamazoo a smith's forge had been set up, where 
hatchets and knives were made for the approaching contest ; 
and at no great distance from it, in a retired spot, the Indian 
women, surrounded by a dense forest, with their children, had 
collected for the purpose of raising corn to furnish a supply of 
food for the warriors. 

It appears that the designs of Tecumseh were fully realized, 
for in the war of 1812 with Great Britain he was found with 
his Indian confederates a strong and faithful ally of the 
British. 

War with England had for some tiini' \>ceu anticipated. 
Meanwhile the Governor of Oliio, under instructions of the 
general government, liad, with great alacrity, gathered 
together, organized, armed and disciplined a portion of the 



ADDRESS OF GP:N. JOHN KOBERT80N. 447 

militia of that State, consisting of three regiments of infantry, 
raised in the Scioto Valley, Cincinnati and the Muskingum 
V^alley, and commanded respectively by Colonels Duncan 
McArthur, James Findlay and Lewis Cass, numbering in all 
about 1200 infantry with some cavalry. 

On May "Jlth, 181 J, the Governor placed those regiments 
under the command of General Hull, who on April 8th had 
been appointed a Brigadier General in the U. 8. army, and a 
movement of this force towards the lakes commenced via the 
Miami X'alley. On the 18th of June following the expected 
declaration of war was made by Congress, and on the 24th 
Hull, while on the march, received a dispatch from the war 
department directing him to hasten with his troops to Detroit 
and there await further orders, and on July 2d arrived there 
and assumed command with considerable staff and great pomp- 
The 4th U. S. infantry, Colonel James Miller commanding, 
having joined Hull on the march at Urbaua, also formed a 
part of his command. On arriving at Detroit Hull's army 
became impatient for action, clamoring to be led into Canada, 
to drive off the " fort builders," as they called them, then at 
work erecting forts near Windsor and Sandwich, and attack 
Maiden. ()u July 9th Hull received orders giving him full 
authority tocommenc'.' offensive operations, and on the evening 
of the 11th, with about 1,000 men, including a battery of six- 
pounders in command of Captain Samuel Dyson, U. S. array, 
moved in boats across the river to Sandwich, the enemy aban- 
doning their position at that point and falling back on Maiden. 

In the meantime reconnaissances were made by Colonels 
McArthur and Cass into Canada without much opposition, the 
former pushing up the Thames as far as the Moravian towns 
above Chatham, and finding no enemy entered upon a foraging 
expedition, returning to Detroit with considerable supplies, 
while Captain Joseph Watson, of the .Michigan troops, with a 
small cavalry force, raided as far as Westminster, Colonel 
Cass moving down on the Canada side towards the Canard 
river, with a detachment of oo regulars and 250 volunteers in 
command of Colonel Miller. On coming nt-ar the l)ridge over 
the stream, discovering that it was defeinled with cannon by 
a force of liritish ti'oo]>s, he attacked and drove them from 
their [)ositioii. falling l)ack on their works at Maiden, when 



448 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

darkness set in, rendering pursuit at that time impracticable. 
A refusal of Hull to follow up this advantage chagrined Cass 
so much that he became enraged, and did not fail to unfavor- 
ably criticise his commander in the most severe terms, and 
tradition says that in his anger Cass broke his sword over an 
old stump in the road. 

News of the war reached the British post at St. Joseph's 
Island, in the St. Mary's river, in July, which was garrisoned 
by a company of regulars, numbering 46 officers and men, in 
command of Capt. Charles Roberts. On the 16th of that month 
this force embarked for Mackinac on board the armed brig 
Caledonia, with 250 agents and employes of the North West 
Fur Company, and traders, together with 500 Indians, all under 
command of responsible traders. They were joined on the 
passage by from 80 to 100, and on their arrival at Mackinac 
about 70 allies were added to the force. 

The garrison of Mackinac consisted of 57 officers and men, 
commanded by Lieut. Porter Hanks, of the regular army. 
The British landed in the night on the beach at what has been 
known ever since as the " British Landing," which is on the 
side of the island reaching farthest from the fort. The British 
at once took possession of Fort Holmes, a position which 
completely commanded the whole island and approaches, 
rendering the fort in which were the American troops utterly 
indefensible, and resistance useless. 

Hanks had been completely surprised, the appearance of the 
British force being the first notice he had received that war 
was in progress. Seeing at once that his position was unten- 
able, and ascertaining the overwhelming force against him, he 
concluded to surrender, and in accordance with terms of capit- 
ulation his command marched out of the fort with the usual 
honors of war, and were paroled. 

The commander started for Detroit, reaching there on the 
29th, when Hull, not having heard of the affair, became 
nervously alarmed and immediately called for reinforcements. 

Sometime after the movement of the Ohio troops on Detroit 
two companies of volunteers were organized in that State, one 
at Chillicothe under Captain Henry Brush, and the other at 
Sandusky by Captain Thomas Rowland, the two forming a 
battalion. This command under Brush, with supplies from 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 449 

Ohio for Hull's array, arrived at the Raisin on August 9th, 
where he ascertained that a British force was posted at Brown- 
stown, cutting ofY all communication with Detroit, and having 
learned that the force was largely superior in point of numbers, 
concluded to await further developments. 

Hull having receive<l notice that Brush was on his way, on 
August 4th had detached Major Van Home with about 150 of 
Findlay's regiment to meet him and act as an escort and guard. 
Meantime information of the movement had reached Proctor, 
the British commander at Makhni, who sent across the river a 
force of soldiers, and together with about 300 Indians, intercept- 
ing him near AFonguagon. Van Home made a gallant attack; 
but repulsed and defeated he returned to Detroit. 

On August 8th Colonel Miller with a detachment of 600 
officers and men, 280 being regulars and the rest Ohio troops, 
made another effort to relieve Brush, l)ut encountered opposi- 
tion by a party of Indians who fired on his rear guard near 
Monguagon; he returned their fire, driving them on the main 
force, estimated at about equal to his own command, made up 
of British regulars and Brownstown Indians, under the cele- 
brated Chief Walk-iii-the-Water. Miller then attacked them, 
and after a warm and severe fight defeated them, but with a 
loss of seventeen killed and wounded, while the enemy lost 
thirty whites and one hundred and four Indians killed and 
wounded. The British disappearing during the night. Miller 
next day got his wounded into boats, and tliinking that the 
communication with Tirush had opened, and failing to get sup- 
plies as promised by Hull, marched for Detroit on August 11th, 
reaching there next day. 

This is recognized as the principal engagement connected 
with the surrender of Detroit, and is designated in the records 
of the War Department as the battle of Brownstown. 

Tlie British commander, General Brock, having been concen- 
trating his forces at Maiden and vicinity for some time, and 
constructing batteries opposite Detroit, on the morning of 
August loth opened fire on a battery commanded by Caj)tain 
Dillaba, U. S. A., which had been made near the centre of the 
town, but near what was then the river bank. At the time the 
batteries opened a flag of truce was received by Hull, demand- 
ing a surrender, which he answered alxiut 3 o'clock, stating that 
29 



45(1 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

he was ready to meet Brock's force and all the consequences. 
The British guns aguin opened and were at once answered 
witli vigor by the Dillaba battery and others, continuing until 
about 10 o'clock at night. 

On the morning of the 16th a brisk fire was again opened 
by the batteries of the fort with considerable effect, which was 
promptly replied to by the American batteries. The enemy 
in the meantime, about 750 strong, commenced crossing the 
river in vessels with an astonishing degree of boldness, landing 
at Springwells without opposition, commenced the advance on 
Detroit without the least obstruction or resistance, while the 
American batteries were refused permission to fire on the ad- 
vancing enemy. 

The fort at the time of their landing was garrisoned by the 
Fourth regular infantry and some detached companies of the 
regular army, one of them of the First Regiment, in command 
of Captain Whistler. The First Regiment Michigan troops 
then in command of Colonel Elijah Brush, and the Legionary 
Corps, in command of Major James Witherell, together with 
the three Ohio regiments were on the commons in rear of the 
town, but not far distant, ready and eager to attack the advanc- 
ing columns. The Second Michigan Regiment, at the request 
of Colonel Anderson, had been retained on the lower Raisin for 
protection of the inhabitants against large numbers of Indians 
arriving from the west, and was not present. 

Colonels McArthur and Cass were also absent; they had been 
sent with 350 officers and men of the Ohio troops on another 
expedition, to open communication with Brush, who was still 
at Godfrey's trading post on the Upper Raisin, but before they 
had reached him were ordered by Hull back to Detroit, arriv- 
ing near there after the surrender. ]>rush was finally reached 
by a British officer, who demanded his surrender, to which 
he declined to accede, and marched his troops back to Ohio 
without parole. 

On the enemy's reaching a certain point in his advance 
on Detroit, the volunteers on the commons, instead of being 
allowed to attack, which they so urgently demanded, were all 
ordered inside the fort. When Findlay with his regiment 
reached the gate he halted outside, and with Major Snelling 
found Hull inside, much dissatisfied and indignant, and at the 



ADDRESS OF GEN. J(^HN K« HJKKTSON. 451 

same time much excited. Findlay abruptly said to his com- 
manding officer: " What in hell am I ordered here for?" Hull 
replied in a low trembling voice that in view of the number 
killed in the fort, a surrender would be best, that he could pro- 
cure better terms from General Brock at that time than if he 
waited a storm. Colonel Findlay replied: "Terms! damna- 
tion ! We caN beat them on the plain. I did not come here 
to capitulate ; T came to fight." But he had to enter with his 
regiment, notwithstanding his forcible protest. 

The fort was totally insufficient to hold so many, and thus 
being huddled together almost in a solid mass, a shot or shell 
entering from any direction could not fail of doing fearful ex- 
ecution. When the enemy had arrived at a point on the route 
within a mile of the town, their approach, coupled with the 
result of the fire from the batteries, terrified and bewildered 
Hull so that without any consultation with his officers he raised 
the white Hag and surrendered, which beseemed to accomplish 
with an astonishing degree of unconcern and effrontery. 

About noon of tlie IGtli of Augiist, Genei-al Brock with his 
forces triumphantly entered the fort, and tlie Americans 
marched out with solemnity and silence; the stars and stripes 
were hauled down and replaced by the British colors. A gar- 
rison of 250 officers and soldiers was established in command 
of General Proctor, and the fort and town were again under 
the British government. 

By the capitulation he surrendered about two thousand men, 
with a large amount of supplies, provisions, 2,500 stand of 
small arms and a quantity of ammunition and including 
thirty-five iron and brass cannon; most of the supplies being 
at once transferred to Maiden. The regular troops were held as 
prisoners of war and sent to Montreal, Quebec, and some even 
to Halifax, while those of Michigan were })aroled at Detroit, 
and those of Ohio were also paroled there and sent in vessels to 
Cleveland. 

Thus was accomplished the surrender of Detroit, a fortified 
place, to an inferior force of unequal equipment, with a disad- 
vantageous position, in an enemy's country, with a broad, 
deep and rapid river in the rear, and with a limited means of 
retreat in the event of defeat. An audacious and bold under* 
taking, its success mysterious and unaccounted for, except in 



452 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

positive imbecility or treasonable connivance in the American 
commander. Thus presenting the humiliating spectacle of the 
unconditional surrender, without a shot, of an American fort 
well planned and substantially constructed, amply equipped 
and supplied in every respect, fully manned with troops well 
posted, eager and persistent to defend it, artillery in position 
commanding all the approaches, with officers and men begging 
the denied privilege of opening fire on the advancing enemy. 
The American people to this day abhor the thought of the 
disgraceful surrender, and while they justifiably exonerate 
the rank and file, they denounce the pronounced cowardice, if 
not treason, of him who alone was responsible, and shudder 
with horror at the very thought of its being consummated by 
an American general. 

On the day of surrender, and before his departure for Can- 
ada, Brock issued a proclamation declaring that the territory 
of Michigan had been ceded to the arms of Ilis Britannic 
Majesty, without any other condition than the protection of 
private property. 

Proctor succeeded Brock in command, who, on August 21, 
by proclamation, organized a civil government. 

Hull was taken to Montreal, where he was offered, and ac- 
cepted, his parole on September 16th, and allowed to proceed 
to his home. Charges were afterwards officially preferred 
against him of treason, cowardice and conduct unbecoming an 
officer, and neglect of duty. He was tried on these charges at 
Albany, N. Y., in January, 1813, and acquitted of treason, but 
found guilty on the other charges and specifications, and was 
sentenced to be shot, but on account of his services in the 
Revolutionary War, the Court earnestly recommended him to 
the mercy of President Madison, who approved of tlie sen- 
tence, but extended the pardon. 

The American forces, with the exception of their com- 
mander, were faithful in their service to tlieir country on 
every occasion where the opportunity was afforded them, while 
many of theii- officers, both regular and volunteer, distinguished 
themselves by bravery and gallant deeds, being specially men- 
tioned in reports. 

The Michigan troops were not afforded the desired oppor- 
tunity to become actively engaged in that most feeble defence, 



ADDRKSS OF GKN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 453 

nor were they in the least responsible for the eowanlly and 
unaccountable surrender of Hull, and in no wise were any of 
the other troops serving there, as all openly protested against 
H as a measure neither honorable nor necessary. 

On the 18th of January, 1813, the exchange of Hull, McAr- 
thur, Cass, Findhiy, Miller and the remainder of the paroled 
troops was officially announced, relieving them from disability 
to serve in the war. 

Hull's surrender had the immediate effect of creating a gen- 
eral uprising all over the West ; a campaign was planned for 
the capture of Maiden and the recovery of Michigan territory 
from British rule, and relieve the peojile from tlie terror of 
the merciless savages. Kentucky and Ohio were especially 
active, and General W. H. Harrison was, by common consent, 
put at the head of the forces, receiving a special commission 
from Kentucky, and also one from the United States Govern- 
ment. The troops raised were volunteers not called out origin- 
ally by the United States, but brought into tlic Held under the 
enthusiasm of the occasion. 

General Winchester, an oM officer of the revolution, in com- 
mand of a division of these troops undertaking without orders 
to advance to the River Raisin, and on reaching there, met 
with a disastrous defeat. On January 18th, 1813, about 600 
or TOO officers and men of his force, in command of Colonel 
Lewis, reached a point on the Raisin near what is now the 
city of Monroe, where he was attacked by a force of British 
and Indians. He at once made a disposition of his troops, 
crossed the river on the ice to what is now known as French- 
town, and attacked, when the battle became very hot and de- 
structive, driving thera into the heavy timber, when darkness 
put an end to the conflict, having lost twelve killed and fifty 
wounded, while the British loss was not ascertained, their 
killed and wounded being carried off by the Indians. 

On the 21st, Winchester, having arrived with the rest of his 
command, was apprised that he would be attacked that night 
or next morning, and urged to prepare for a severe battle ; 
but he disregarded the warning, and on the next morning at 
davbreak his camp was opened on with a heavy artillery fire 
of shot and canister, and assaulted at the same time by a force 
of British regulars and about 3,000 Indians, when, after a 



454 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

severe contest, his force was compelled to recross the river, 
fighting bravely and desperately, with heavy loss. The enemy 
giving no quarter, the greater portion of his wounded were 
either killed or scalped, while Winchester and Lewis surrend- 
ered to Roundhead, an Indian, who delivered them up to Proc- 
tor, and on arriving at his headquarters and understanding the 
condition of his troops, Winchester surrendered his entire 
force with the understanding that the wounded and private 
property should be cared for and protected. 

Notwithstanding this promise, the insolence and barbarity 
of the Indians commenced; an appeal to Proctor for protection 
failing to bring relief, some of the troops, still having their 
arms, opened fire on the Indians, which for the time being 
ended the mischievous work. Contrary to the assurance of 
Proctor, his promises were all disregarded; pillage was per- 
mitted without restraint or punishment. Those able to travel 
were put on the march, in the extreme cold and deep snow, for 
Maiden, while the wounded, unable to travel, were left at the 
mercy of the savages, on the frozen ground. Soon after a 
large body of Indians, led by their chiefs, assembled on the 
ground in war paint, bent on revenge, and in council deter- 
mined that the wounded should be put to death. This was 
fully carried into effect, and most of them were either scalped 
or killed, while two houses used as prisons for the captured 
were fired and consumed, with most of their inmates unable 
to escape. Many of them in trying to get through the 
windows were thrust back, while some who were not inside 
were killed and thrown into the flames. 

The British victory was dearly bought. Proctor had 182 
killed and wounded in his white force, or more than one-third; 
the loss of the Indians was not known ; and of the American 
troops not more than 30 or 40 escaped ; 537 prisoners were 
accounted for as first estimated, and the number was increased 
by 40 or 50 afterwards ransomed from the Indians. 

The bloody battle of the Raisin, fought on Michigan soil, 
but not by Michigan troops, has well been designated in 
history as one of the inhuman massacres of the ages. The 
shot-gun, the tomahawk and scalping knife were the instru- 
ments of death in the hands of the victorious savages bent on 
unrestrained plunder and butchery, while the bodies of many 



A1)I)KK!?S OF (iKN. JOHN KOBEUTSON. 455 

of the dead, being Udt unprotected and exposed, were ilevoured 
by dogs, swine and other voracious animals, the brutal tyrant 
who controlled affairs not even interfering in the least to secure 
their naked and mangled bodies a deposit in the frozen ground. 

" How dread was the conflict, how bloody the tray, 
Told the l)anks of the Raisin at tlie dawn of the day, 
While the giisii from tiie wounds of the dying and dead 
Had tliawed for the warrior a snow-sheeted bed." 

" But where is the pride tlial a soldier can feel, 
To temper with mercy the wrath of the steel, 
While Proctor, victorious, denies to the brave, 
Who had fallen in battle, tlie gift of the grave." 

The expedition of Proctor into Ohio early in 18l;5, his 
attempted attack and failure May 1st on Fort Meigs, at the 
Maumee Rapids, then held by General Harrison, and his defeat 
on Jidy 27th, following in his assault on Fort Stephenson, on 
the Sandusky river, in command of Major George Croghan, 
coupled with the advance of Harrison's army and Commodore 
Perry's great victory on Lake End on the 10th of September, 
rendered the retreat of Proctor on Maiden advisable, which he 
accomplished in all haste. These events and the advance of 
Perry's fleet towards the mouth of the Detroit river compelled 
the abandonment of Maiden on the 18th of that month by the 
British forces. On the 2 7th of September Harrison crossed 
from the Middle Sister Island to the Canada shore about four 
miles below ]\Ialden, and on maiching into that place and 
finding it evacuated he at once prepared for pursuit, but did 
not expect to overtake Proctor until he should reach the 
Thames, where he told Tecumseh he meant to make a stand. 

Proctor was at Sandwich when Harrison landed, and he at 
once moved eastward with the Detroit garrison and all his 
auxiliaries. On the 2r)th the American army reached Sand- 
wich, and General Duncan McArthur crossed over and took 
possession of the fort, which he h id left before under such 
different circumstances. The overjoyed inhabitants were 
released from what had become a reign of terror. The fort 
had been fired, but the flames were extinguished, and General 
McArthur drove off a horde of hostile Indians who were 
prowling round the neighborhood. The fleet arrived the same 
day. On the iOth (ieneral Harrison issued his proclamation 



456 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

restoring the civil authority as it had been before the 
surrender, and entrusting its administration to the old incum- 
bents when present, and to their next predecessors, if absent. 
Colonel Johnson's riflemen came up on the 30th and crossed 
into Canada on the day after. 

The American flag is said to have been raised by the inhabi- 
tants before McArthur's entrance. But it never floated again 
from the old flagstaff. That was left bare and uncared for as 
a memorial and warning, until a few years afterwards, in June, 
1820, it was blown over by a severe wind and ceased to be vis- 
ible from the walls. What ignominious uses its ruins may 
have served is not recorded. It was not, however, in demand 
for relics. McArthur's command was left to hold Detroit. 
Cass' brigade was left at Sandwich, and Harrison, with Cass 
and Perry as volunteer aids, and a force of about 3,500, on 
the 2nd of October pushed on by land after Proctor, the 
smaller vessels of the fleet sailing up the Thames. Proctor 
was at last overtaken at the Moravian towns, and compelled to 
give battle on the 5th. The mounted riflemen dashed through 
. the British line and turned it, and in less than ten minutes the 
whole force was captured, except General Proctor and seventeen 
oflicers and two hundred and thirty-nine men. The ofticial re- 
ports of his own government show that he was regarded as 
having been guilty of grossly disgraceful conduct. His brave 
ally, Tecumseh, met a soldier's death by the hands of a brave 
enemy, Colonel Johnson. 

The American fleet was now employed in removing the 
ammunition and stores from the captured British posts, and 
on the 18th of October General Harrison and Commodore 
Perry issued a joint proclamation at Detroit for the better gov- 
ernment of the 'JY'rritory of Michigan, and guaranteeing to the 
inhabitants their rights of property, and the enjoyment of 
their ancient usages and laws. 

The Island of Mackinac was now the only part of the terri- 
tory remaining in the possession of the enemy. This being a 
post of great importance, from its commanding the upper 
lakes and being the centre of the fur trade, a fleet under 
Commodore Sinclair, with a body of land forces under Colonel 
Croghan, the gallant defender of Sandusky, was dispatched in 
July, 1814, for the purpose of capturing it. After reconnoiter- 



ADDRESS OF GP:N. JOHN KOBERTSON. 457 

iiig the coast near the Island, the Commodore proceeded to the 
neighboring British island of St. Joseph, where he destroyed a 
few trading posts and then returned. 

Meanwhile the British commandant was actively employed 
in strengthening his defences and in summoning to his aid the 
nearest savage tribes. 

It was at first proposed to attack the post near the village, as 
that part was the most free from trees, and consequently offered 
less cover to the Indians. This, however, was objected to by 
Sinclair, as his fleet would be here exposed to the fire of the 
fort. It was finally concluded to land on the northeastern 
side of the island, although from this point they would be 
obliged to traverse its whole breadth, through a dense forest in 
order to reach the British position. After marching some 
distance through the wilderness, on arriving at a small clearing 
the detachment was fired on from all sides by the savages 
stationed in the surrounding woods. Major Holmes, at the 
head of a considerable force, wis directed to charge the enemy, 
but as he was gallantly executing the order, he was shot down 
by a rifle ball. The fire, indeed, was so destructive that the 
advanced party was obliged to retreat to the main body, upon 
which the whole force retired to their boats, abandoned the 
enterprise and returned to Detroit. In consequence of this 
failure the British retained possession of Mackinac until the 
conclusion of peace. 

With the death of Tecumseh the confederacy was dissolved, 
and a peace was concluded with the Ottawas, Chippewas, 
Miamis and Pottawatamies. This renowned chief deserves a 
passing notice. He possessed a noble figure, his countenance 
was strikingly exjiressive of magnanimity, and he was distin- 
guished for inonil traits far above his race. He was not re- 
markable for eloquence, or even for intellect; but ho was a 
warrior in the broadest Indian sense of the word. Without the 
far-reaching views of Pontiac, or his hereditary rank, still in 
sudden action and desperate valor he showed himself superior 
to that chief; antl, though a new man, he acquired unbounded 
intliu'iict.', and ])laci'd himself above all competitors as the great 
champion of Indian rights. While his brother, the Prophet, 
was the principal manager of the confederacy in all that related 
to its organization and plans, he was its executive arm in the 



45 S Michigan's semi-c?:ntennial. 

field. There were other peculiarities by which he was no less 
distinguished. Like Pontiac, he manifested a deep interest in 
regard to the manners and customs of the whites; lie would not 
sanction the barbarities practiced by the Indians, and he dis- 
dained the personal adornments in which they so much de- 
lighted. Although holding the rank of a Brigadier General in 
the British service, he pertinaciously adhered to his Indian 
garb, a deerskin coat with leggings of the same material, was 
his constant dress, and in this he was found dead at the battle 
of the Thames. During the latter years of his life he was 
almost incessantly engaged either in the Council or at the head 
of his warlike bands; and he sank at last on the field of his 
glory, with tomahawk in hand and the cry of battle upon his 

lips. 

"Like monumental bronze, unchanged his look; 
A sohI which pity touch'd, hut never shook; 
Train'd from his tree-rocked cradle to his bier. 
The fierce extremes of good and ill to brook; 
Unchanging, fearing but the shame of fear, 
A stoic of the woods, a man without a tear." 

The victory of Commodore Perry having secured the com- 
mand of Lake Erie, Proctor's army having been routed, and 
the Indian confederacy l)roken up, nothing of especial interest 
in military affairs transpired in the territory during the re- 
mainder of the war, which terminated under the treaty of 
February 17, 1815. 

On October 2!)th, 1813, General Cass, who had held the rank 
of Brigadier General United States Array since March 12th, 
1813, was, by President Madison, made permanent Governor 
of Michigan Territory, and served until August 1st, 1831, hav- 
ing been appointed Secretary of War by President Jackson in 
July of that year. Governor Cass deeming a prompt and 
efficient re-organization of the militia in the territory important 
and necessary, on the 17th of December following designated 
to be recruited and mustei'ed into service as active troops 
Legionary Corps in Detroit, First Regiment 'u\ the vicinity of 
Detroit, the Second Regiment in and around Monroe county, 
and a battalion on the Clinton and St. Clair rivers. The com- 
manders were directed to report to Lieutenant Colonel Butler, 
Twenty-eighth United States Tiif.iiitry, left in charge of the 
Post of Detroit. 



ADDKESS OF GKN. JOHN KoBKRTSON. 459 

It appears that during tlie remaiiuler of the existence ol, tlie 
territory tliis force continued in service, with some changes in 
•lesignation and with additions, including several independent 
companies in various parts of the territory. 

In 1820 an act was passed authorizing the Governor to 
arrange tlie militia into divisions, brigades, regiments, bat- 
talions and comjianies, and appoint officers. In the meantime 
the active force luid but very little of service, nothing occuri'ing 
to recpiire it, until early in the spring of 1832. A war with the 
Sac and Fox Indians, then occupying the country west of the 
Mississippi river, was inaugurated by an invasion of Northern 
Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, then in what was known as 
Micliigan Territory, by Black Hawk, the chief of these Indi- 
ans, who had repeatedly given assurances to the Government 
that he, with his people, would remain on the west side of the 
river, but had then, with liis force, entered Illinois, murder- 
ing the inhabitants in considerable numbers, committing depre- 
dations upon their property and submitting them to continual 
fear for their lives ; declaring that he would use all his en- 
deavors, even unto war, to recover his old home on the east 
side of the river, which he had left under treaty. 

At the commencement of the outbreak, quite a heavy Indian 
war seemed itievitable from all appearances, as the dispositions 
of surrounding tribes were not clearly understood ; and in 
addition to the regular troops sent up the Mississippi river, a 
considerable force was sent from the seaboard and from other 
points to the seat of war, taking the lake route via steamers. 

When the war commenced, Stevens T. Mason, being Secre- 
tary and acting Governor of Michigan, called on General John 
R. Williams, then in command of the militia, for troops, when 
an order was made on May 2d for a detachment of 250 officers 
ami men of the First Regiment, whicli was promptly furnished, 
iiu'hiding one company of dragoons. 

The command was on the march for Chicago at one o'clock 
tlie next day; it was reached, however, on the day following 
by an order from Governor Mason to General Williams, who 
was in command, to send the infantry back to Detroit and ]»ro- 
ceed with his stalf and dragoons to Chicago. 

Another detachment of five companies of infantry, raised in 
the southern portion of the State, comniatuU'il by General 



460 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Joseph W. Brown, bad previously moved westward for the 
field of operations ; but on reaching Niles was ordered back 
and mustered out at Tecumseh. 

A company of fifty cavalry from Brown's command, also ac- 
companied General Williams. The General with his force, 
arrived in Chicago and, remaining some weeks awaiting de- 
velopments of the war, made a reconnaissance to Napier's set- 
tlement, a point which the Indians at that time were threaten- 
ing, and did not return to Michigan until after the capture of 
Black Hawk. 

While the command was in Chicago the people of that city, 
on the 18th of June, at a public meeting, adopted and pub- 
lished an address to General Williams and the officers and sol- 
diers of his command, warmly thanking them " for the prompt 
and efficient aid rendered by them when the citizens of Chi- 
cago were without protection and had not the means of de- 
fending themselves." 

Although from circumstan(!es beyond their control, the 
Michigan troops organized for the Black Hawk war, both in- 
fantry and cavalry, were not afi'orded the opportunity they so 
much desired of taking an active part in the war by meeting 
the enemy, yet their courage and patriotism were none the 
less. Having volunteered in a good cause and undertaken a 
march of great hardship on foot of several hundred miles, 
much of it over badly constructed roads, through a country, a 
large portion of which was then comparatively a wilderness, 
and withal scantily provided with supplies and equipment, 
entitled them to much vvell-deserved credit. 

Major (Tcneral Scott accompanied the detachment sent by 
the lakts, which became much demoralized and reduced by 
cholera, while General Atkinson commanded the forces sent 
by the Mississippi. The Indians had been attacked and driven 
from point to point, and were reached at their headquarters at 
the mouth of Rock river, and finding themselves hard pressed 
by the advancing troops, pushed up Black river, more anxious 
to escape their pursuers than to make war on them. Tlie pur- 
suit continued to the Wisconsin river, where they were over- 
taken, and a spirited fight ensued. The Indians, defeated, 
crossed the river in the night, still pursued closely by the 
troops. They were overtaken near th e mouth of the Bad Axe 



ADDRKSS OF GEN. JOHN KOBEKTSON. 461 

rivur, which runs into the Mississippi river about forty miles 
above Prairie du Chien. A steamer, tlie Warrior, liad been 
sent up the Mississippi river with troops and armed with a six- 
pounder, to prevent their escape across the river. Thus sur- 
rounded, tlie Indians fell easy victims, and the battle soon 
terminated in the total destruction of a very large portion of 
Black Hawk's followers, men, women and children, and the 
capture and dispersion of the remainder ; and thus ended the 
battle of Bad Axe, the tinal engagement of the Black Hawk 
War. The official reports give the loss by the whites at 
twenty five killed and wounded. The entire loss by the array 
in the war, including the murders of settlers, and exclusive of 
the ravages of cholera, was estimated at about fifty, while the 
Indians were reported to have lost 230 killed in battle and a 
great number died of wounds, with a great loss by starvation, 
disease and drowning among the women and children. Black 
Hawk hastily made his escape with his Prophet from Bad Axe, 
and a large reward was offered for his capture. The fugitives 
pursued their lonely retreat to the dalles on the Wisconsin 
river, and were there captured by One-eyed-De-Cor-ra, a chief 
of the Winnebagos, who delivered them as prisoners of war 
on the "-'Tth of August to General Street, Indian Agent at 
Prairie du Chien. 

'■ 1 will weep for a sea.suu ou bilteruess' bed; 
For my kindred are gone to the bills of the dead, 
But they died nat by hunger or lingering decay, 
The steel of the white man bath swept them away." 

The hostile chief was sent down the river with an escort in 
charge of Lieut. Jefferson Davis, of the regular army, to 
Jefferson Barracks, Mo., and held as a prisoner of war several 
months, a portion of the time confined at Fortress Monroe, 
from which he was taken in June, 18:^8, and escorted through 
the principal cities and towns for the purpose .of enlightening 
him as to the power of the country, of which he seemed to be 
entirely ignorant, and finally reaching the Mississippi river he 
was released from arrest and lived in quiet on the banks of 
that river, where he died Oct. '2;^, 1838. 

What is known as the Toledo v.'ar was one of very peculiar 
and harmless cliaracter, beginning in perspective and ending 
without collision, right, or casualty, yet e.viiibiting on the start 



462 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

on both sides a maximum of bombastic thrcatenings, pros- 
pective of possible coming war, with bloody battles and direful 
consequences; and although it brought out on the part of 
Michigan the most formidable military demonstration incident 
to a dispute between States as to territory, occurring in the 
United States, it ended in a wordy peace which has resulted 
in handing down the whole affair, both civil and military, in 
undeserved traditional and written ridicule. 

In the beginning of 1835 the State of Ohio undertook to 
enfofce jurisdiction over certain territory south of the Maumee 
Bay, which was then a portion of Michigan territory. The 
legislative council of Michigan on February 12th of that year 
passed an act "To prevent the exercise of foreign jurisdiction 
within the limits of the Territory of Michigan," making it a 
penal offence for any one to accept or exercise any public 
office in any part of the territory, except by commission from 
the United States or Michigan. On the 19th of the same month 
Acting Governor Mason, in a letter of instructions in detail to 
General Joseph W. Brown, then commanding a division of 
Michigan militia, says: "Under existing circumstances but 
one of two courses is left for Michigan to pursue. If Ohio 
continues to persevere in the attempt to wrest from us our 
territory, as she now meditates, in voluntary submission to 
encroachment upon our rights, or firm and determined opposi- 
tion to her, — the latter, though painful to us, is preferable to 
the former, and must be decided upon. With this in view I 
have, with due regard to the important task assigned you, con- 
cluded to give you the control of the measures necessary to be 
adopted in consequenceof the peculiar and unpleasant relations 
which I fear may soon exist between the civil authorities of 
Ohio and those of this territory." 

On the 2.3d following, the Oiiio Legislature asserting the 
right of that State, and declaring that measures should be 
taken to establish it. Governor Lucas placed a Major General 
of militia in command, with instructions to enroll the militia 
of tlie districts in dispute, for the purpose of protection, while 
running a boundary line which Ohio insisted on accom- 
plishing. The matter of boundary had been laid before Con- 
gress, but failed to receive attention, and the Acting Governor 
of Michigan, considering his territory in possession, ordered 



ADDRESS OF GKN. .lOlfX KOBKUTSON. 463 

General Brown to hold himself in readiness to resist any 
attempt of Ohio to carry out the threatened measures, the 
right of Michigan being sustained by the Attorney General of 
the United States, and also by the President and his advisers. 
After a futile attempt at conciliation and considerable delay, 
Ohio still persisting in her claim, the President intimated by 
letter that if that State attempted running tlie line with an 
armed force he would have to interfere to prevent it by the 
power of tlie United States. Still affairs remained quiet, with 
an occasional difficulty, but without any military demonstra- 
tion. It was ascertained, however, that in accordance with 
the views of the Ohio Legislatuie, a new county (Lucas) was 
to be organized over the disj)uted territory, and that court was 
to be opened at Toledo on the 7th of September, 1S85, and 
that this move was to be protected by Ohio troops. To meet 
this contemplated action Governor Mason ordered out the 
Micliigan foi-ces, and with them in person moved on Toledo, 
but on arriving there no opj)Osing force was encountered, and 
he peacefully took possession of the place, hohling it for four 
days, when under an order of Septeml)er 10th they returned 
and were disbanded at their various rendezvous, not having 
fired a gun at an enemy nor lost a man. The force numbered 
in all 1,05.5 officers and men, and were paid over thirteen 
thousand dollars for their services. Ohio finally succeeded by 
strong political influence in obtaining the disputed ground, but 
only with what was claimed to have been the consent of 
Michigan, in lieu of which she received what is now known as 
the Upper Peninsula. 

Thus have been briefly recorded the military operations of 
the land of Michigan, the struggles of the inhabitants under 
the blighting effects of feudal surroundings, their courageous 
and trying contests with savages, for the protection of property 
and life, in common with the military power of several govern- 
ments, of which they were from time to time the subjects. 
We have seen the French banner supplanted by the red cross 
of England without producing any beneficial change in the 
condition of the countrv; we have also seen the American 
l)ainu'r surrendereil to IJritish invaders. Hut finally we have 
belield the stars and stripes of i>iir own Republic planted on 
the soil and Hying ovt'r it as a State, anil wit ncsscil in her 



^64 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

extraordinary prosperity the wonder-working energy of her 
people under the free institutions of a government, the 
permanency of which has been so fully and permanently estab- 
lished in the results of a gigantic civil war, unequalled in 
history. 

In June, 1835, Michigan adopted a Constitution and elected 
a State Government, with Stevens T. Mason as Governor, Nov. 
3, 1835, which was accepted by Congress on June 15, 1836, 
and Michigan was admitted into the Union as a State upon 
condition of acceding to the boundary claims of Ohio. This 
condition, which was at first rejected by a convention called 
by the Legislature to consider it, was finally accepted by a 
second convention Dec. 15, 1836, and Michigan was formally 
declared a State by Act of Congress January 26, 1837. 

In the winter of 1837-38 a very feeble effort at revolu- 
tion, known as the Patriot war, broke out along the Canadian 
border, instigated by dissatisfied residents of Canada, encour- 
aged by a lawless element on the American side, which gave 
the government and Michigan considerable annoyance and 
trouble. General Scott was ordered to the frontier to aid in 
preserving peace on the American side and enforcing the 
observance of the neutrality laws, who, with General Brady, 
then in command in Michigan, rendered efticient service. 

On January 8th, 1838, Governor Mason with 220 volunteer 
militia embarked on the steamers Erie and Brady, to arrest the 
schooner Ann with stolen American arms on board and having 
committed a violation of neutrality; but the vessel escaping to 
one of the islands outside of American jurisdiction, the expedi- 
tion proved entirely a failure. 

On January 27th, the steamer Robert Fulton with three com- 
panies of United States troops in command of General Worth, 
arrived at Detroit from Buffalo. In the meantime the Michigan 
Brady Guard had been ordered out for special service on the 
line of the river. On February 12th, Governor Mason called 
out six companies of militia to proceed to Gibraltar, where a 
large and riotous force had congregated after the patriot de- 
feat on Fighting Island. On arriving at the place with his 
force the Governor prevailed on the patriots to disband, but 
they soon collected again for another attempt. 

During the summer and the early j)art of the winter, the 



ADDRESS OF GP:N. JOHN RoBKKTSON. 465 

frontier was Still iu continual commotion, attacks being made at 
various points along the line. In December, a force of about 
180 to 200, in command of General L. V. Bierce, of Ohio, 
boarded a steamer at Detroit, crossed over and landing about 
three miles above Windsor, marched to tlie British barracks, 
which they attacked and burned; meantime the British regulars 
being reinforced from Maiden, the patriots were driven across 
the river to Hog Island (now Belle Isle), in canoes, with a 
loss of twenty-one killed, four ca])tured and shot by order* 
twelve or more frozen to death, and sixty-Hve taken prisoners. 

On December !)th General Scott hail arrived from Buffalo for 
the purpose of maintaining neutrality; and later in that month 
about one thousand British troops had been concentrated at 
Windsor, but tlie war on that part of the frontier had prac- 
tically ended. 

In 1839, under the administration of Governor Woodbridge, 
the un-uniformed militia of the state was regularly organized, 
mostly on paper, however, with eight divisions of two brigades 
of two regiments each, including the few uniformed companies 
then in the State. 

The war with Mexico was a result of the annexa- 
tion of Texas, and brought about by a dispute over the 
boundary line, the Mexicans claiming the Nueces river as 
the line, while the United States insisted on the Rio Grande. 
Mexico, determined to enforce her claim, occupied with troops 
the territory in controversy, thereby bringing on the war, 
which was substantially inaugurated in the early part of Aug- 
ust, 1845, by the occupation of a portion of the disputed ter- 
ritory at Corpus Christi by an army of the United States, 
under General Zachary Taylor, who, on March Ilth, 1846, 
commenced a movement inland, meeting the Mexicans in 
severe battles at several points in Texas, defeating them in 
every instance in face of largely superior numbers, and driv- 
ing them out of Texas across the Rio Grande. Pursuing them 
into their own territory, again meeting them in severe engage- 
ments, defeating and following them from point to point as 
far as Saltillo, and at Buena Vista, in his last and greatest 
battle on February 2'2nd and 2:3rd, 1847, where, against over- 
whelming odds, he routed Santa Anna, driving his native army 
30 



466 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

from the field, and occupied and held the entire northern por- 
tion of Mexico until the war ended. 

In March, 1847, another army, in command of Lieutenant 
General Scott, entered Mexico at Vera Cruz, and advanced 
without <lelay on the City of Mexico, engaging the enemy in 
force at several points in heavy battles, but defeating him in 
every instance, driving him from stronghold to stronghold, 
until finally he attacked him within the fortifications defending 
that city, resulting in its capitulation with the entire Mexican 
army, which ended the war with that country, and maintained 
the claim to the territory in dispute. 

Michigan fully performed the part required of her in the 
war by sending to the field one regiment of ten companies of 
infantry, together with one separate company as volunteers, 
and one company of dragoons and three companies of infantry 
for the regular array. 

In October, 1847, an order was issued by direction of the 
President for mustering the regiment into the service of the 
United States, and the measures necessary to secure a com- 
pliance with that order were taken without delay by the proper 
authorities of the State. 

The regiment was designated the First Regiment Michigan 
Volunteers, commanded by Colonel T. B. W. Stockton, and 
was mustered into the service at various dates during the 
months of October, November and December, 1847, and Jan- 
uary and February, 1848. 

The regiment remained in the field, rendering faithful and 
efficient service until the close of the war, when it returned to 
Michigan via New Orleans, Chicago and Mackinac to Detroit, 
where it was mustered out of service July 23, 184s. 

The company of dragoons referred to was organized in De- 
troit by Captain Andrew T. McReynolds for the Third United 
States Dragoons. The three companies of infantry were for 
the Fifteenth Regular Infantry, commanded by Colonel George 
W. Morgan, of Ohio, with Joshua Howard, of Detroit, as 
Lieutenant Colonel. Tiie separate company referred to was 
the Brady Guard Company of Detroit, Captain Morgan L. 
Gage, which was sent to Mackinaw and Saulte Ste. Marie to 
relieve companies of regulars for service in the war. 

Following this war the uniformed militia was composed of 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN RoUERTSON. 467 

independent companies, raised from time to time throusyhout 
the State, made up from tlie best young men of the communi 
ties ill wliich they vvere recruited. At the time of the break- 
ing out of the civil war tliey consisted of twenty-eight se])a- 
rate companies, without any regimental formation, uniformed 
at their own expense, only partially equipped, but well armed; 

" For with a common shriek the ,<!;eneral tongue 
Exchiimed ! 'To arms.' and fast to arms tliey sprang, 
And valor woke that Genius of the land ! 
Pleasure, and ease, and sloth aside he flung, 
As burst th' awakening Nazarite his band, 
When 'gainst his treacherous foes he clenched his dreadful hand." 

The great war for the Union waged against secession and 
rebellion, inaugurated in 1861 by the armed uprising of the 
people of the Southern States and the attack on Fort Sumter, 
boldly assailing and defying the Government and insulting the 
tiag, was sudden and alarming, gigantic in proportions* 
destructive in prosecution, ])rolonged in duration, but most 
triumphant and glorious in termination. 

Michigan, from tlic beginning, was strong and earnest in 
sympath)'' with the Union cause, and, believing in its justice 
and right, she was pronounced in her loyalty, persistent and 
untiring in furnishing her contiiigcmt to the war to aid in 
saving the nation, was conspicuously present in force at its 
commencement and at its end. Thus fulfilling the sacred 
pledge of the people at the outbreak, consecrating their strong 
arras, their means, and if need be their lives, to defend and 
maintain the Government, under all circumstances and at all 
hazards and sacrifices, declaring that the emergency and neces- 
sity of the time must be met speedily and fully. 

The war found the uniformed militia in better condition 
than might have been expected^ considering its struggles for 
many years to acquire recognition or assistance as an element 
of the State government, but so far had failed. It was no 
wonder that it was regarded as delicate and feeble, and rather 
looked upon as a burlesque on the military profession. It 
proved, however, a valuable nucleus, from which rallied the 
earlier regiments sent to the war, giving them much of the 
discipline and esprit de corps which afterward characterized 
them ill the field. 



468 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Notwithstanding the weakness of the State in a military- 
point of view, as well as in her financial resources, she was 
strong in loyalty, coui*age and patriotism. 

On retiring from the executive chair at the close of his term, 
in 1860, Governor Wisner delivered a cogent and eloquent 
address to the Legislature of 1861. In discussing the great 
question of secession, his language bore no shadow of flatter- 
ing, no tinge of disaffection or doubtfulness, but in great 
earnestness and stirring eloquence and firmness breathing in 
every sentence devotion to the Union, invoking patriotism and 
denouncing treason, we quote some of his inspiring words : 
" This is no time for timid and vacillating councils, when the 
cry of treason and rebellion is ringing in our ears." " The 
Constitution, as our fathers made it, is good enough for us, 
and must be enforced upon every foot of American soil." 
" Michigan cannot recognize the right of a State to secede 
from this Union. We believe that the founders of our Gov- 
ernment designed it to be perpetual, and we cannot consent to 
have one star obliterated from our flag. For upwards of 
thirty years this question of the right of a State to secede has 
been agitated. It is time it was settled. We ought not 
to leave it for our children to look after." "I would calmly 
but firmly declare it to be the fixed determination of Michigan 
that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, must 
and shall be preserved." 

Governor Blair, the war Governor, followed Wisner in a 
profound and logical message, setting forth the true nature of 
our system of government, and after discussing the impend- 
ing crisis, closed with these emphatic utterances: "We are 
satisfied with the Constitution of our country and will obey 
the laws enacted under it, and we must demand that the peo- 
ple of all the other States do the same; safety lies in this path 
alone. The Union must be preserved, and the laws must be 
enforced in all parts of it at whatever cost. The President is 
bound to this by his oath and no power can discharge him 
from it. Secession is revolution, and revolution in the overt 
act is treason and must be treated as such. The Federal Gov- 
ernment has the power to defend itself, and I do not do\ibt 
that power will be exercised to the utmost. It is a question of 
war that the seceding States have to look in the face. They who 



ADDRESS OK GEN. JOHN liOHKKTSON. 469 

tliiiik that this powerful CTOvermuent can be disrupted peace- 
fully have read history to no j)urpose. The sons of the men 
who carried arms in the seven years war with the most power- 
ful nation in the world to establish this Government will not 
hesitate to make equal sacrifices to maintain it. Most deeply 
must we deplore the unnatural contest. On the heads of the 
traitors who provoke it must rest the responsibility. In such 
a contest the God of battles has no attribute that can take 
sides with the revolutionists of the Slave States. 

"I recommend you at an early day to make manifest to the 
gentlemen who represent this State in the two Houses of Con- 
gress, and to the country, that Michigan is loyal to the Union, 
the Constitution and the laws, and will defend them to the 
uttermost; and to proffer to the President of the United States 
the whole military power of the State for that purpose. Oh! 
for the firm, steady hand of a Washington or a Jackson to 
guide the ship of state in this perilous storm. Let us hope 
that we shall find him on the 4th of Mai'ch. Meantime, let us 
abide in the faith of our fathers — 'Liberty and Union, one and 
inseparable, now and forever.' " 

The Legislature, backed by the strong Union sentiment of 
the people, and inspired by its own love of country, was quick 
in defining its position, and pron)ptly flying its colors to the 
western breeze, declared in joint resolution the adherence of 
the State to the Union, pledging and tendering all its military 
power and material resources, anil asserting that concession or 
compromise was not to be entertained, nor offered to traitors. 
Michigan was extremely fortunate in her executive. His 
example and utterances in public and private, full of loyalty, 
patriotism and courage, gave an abiding tone to public senti- 
ment and inspired the troops. And although the intense pre- 
vailing patriotism of the people of Michigan was undoubtedly 
the main source of the high standard reached by her troops 
in this respect, yet it being so eminently inherent in her " War 
Governor," Austin Blair, and which he so eloquently imparted 
to them on every fitting occasion, impressing it on their minds 
with so mucli earnestness as to produce most beneficial and 
enduring eflFects. 

The State was equally fortunate in her Legislative bodies, 
being composed of men thoroughly in sympathy with the 



470 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Union cause, opposing with great earnestness and ability any 
measures tinctured in the least with secession or even a shadow 
of compromise; and as a result their declarations in this 
respect were "stalwart" and decided, not minced in clipped or 
timid words, nor faint in expression, but bold, pronounced and 
defiant. 

In the management of her interests at the National Capital 
the State was well represented, having in the several depart- 
ments of the Government men of influence, who esteemed the 
reputation of their State, and were ever anxious and prompt 
to advance her cause. In her representatives in both Houses 
of Congress she was especially favored, and with these advan- 
tages Michigan unhesitatingly, but reluctantly, although hope- 
fully and fearlessly, launched her bark on the turbulent sea of 
war on rebellion. 

In the meantime, however, Sumter had been tired on. With 
the early dawn comes the expected shot, and like the deep 
thunder, awakes the morning echoes and rolls over the trembling 
waters of the bay. No single shot before ever bore such desti. 
nies on its darkened flight. 

The tocsin of the gigantic and wicked rebellion, the key-note 
of civil war, had been heard all over the land ; the National banner 
had been insulted by the fire of treason's batteries, when the 
loyal young men of Michigan sprang, as if by magic, to arms, 
to defend and maintain the National Union and protect its 
flag; to sustain the honor of their State and maintain their 
own glorious birthright as freemen. They vowed to God and 
their native land, and pledged their arms and their lives, that 
the beloved flag of their country should again wave triumph- 
antly on the walls of Sumter, and over every Slate and inch 
of ground in the Union, and that the Republic should be 
saved and forever preserved. 

Nothing was definitely undertaken by the State authoriticg 
until April 15th, when the surrender of the Carolina fortress 
was known throughout the land, and Michigan had been called 
on for her quota of the 75,000 volunteers required by the 
Government. The eventful hour had come with its emergen- 
cies and duties, and being fully realized by the people of the 
State, the excitement was intense, the uprising universal, and 
business was almost abandoned. Flags waved from every 



ADDKKSS OK (tEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 471 

public building .ind piivate dwelling, alike on the palace and 
on the cot, while the drum beat to music of the Union from 
our soutliern border to the far off and craggy shores of our 
great lakes. The volunteers in large numbers were assembling 
in various parts, demanding instant service, while the cheering 
and inspiring watch-fires of patriotism had been kindled on 
every hillside and in every valley. 

" Throughout the laud there goes a cry; 
A sudden splendor tills the sky, 
From every hill the banners burst. 
Like buds by April breezes nurst; 
In every hamlet, home and mart, 
The firebeat of a single lieart 
Keeps time to strains whose pulses mix 
Our blood with that of Seventy-Six." 

The proclamation of the President, received April loth, and 
his own anxiety regarding coming events, coupled with a de- 
termination for immediate action, brought Governor Blair to 
Deti'oit on the IGth, and after a short consultation with mili- 
tary men and prominent citizens, issued his proclamation for 
a regiment to till the re(juisition of the Govi.'rnment, which 
was promptly responded to, and the tender (^f troops far ex- 
ceeded the number required. 

At the meeting of the citizens it was ascertained that the 
State Treasury was comparatively empty, and that the pressing 
call for means could not be immediately met; pledges were 
then and afterwards taken from the financial men of the State 
for 1100,000, the amount required, on which John Owen, the 
State Treasurer, raised the funds, afterwards refunded by the 
State. Thus all the pressing duties of the hour were speedily 
met. 

The Governor had also issued a proclamation on April 2, 
1861, convening the Legislature in extra session on the 7th of 
May. A session of four days resulted in the passage of laws 
endorsing the previous acts of the Governor, and clothing him 
with full authority to raise ten regiments, and also to effect a 
loan of one million of dollars, which was speedily accom- 
plished. A "Soldiers' Relief Law" was also wisely and 
generously enacted, providing aid for one year for the fami- 
lies of soldiers, according to their necessities, but not to exceed 



472 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

fiftet'u doUiirs a month. The President's call for troops was 
promptly met by the muster-in of the First Regiment and its 
early movement on May 13th to the field, having the honor of 
being the first regiment reaching Washington from the AYest. 
Hurriedly the advance of the Michigan contingent took up 
their line of march southward to defend the capital and pro- 
tect the flag; and as their many friends, with warm and true 
hearts, grasped the hand and kissed the brow, with " God bless 
and protect you," in affectionate whispers, thought reached 
not so far into the future, nor mind conceived that the little 
band then bidding adieu to loved ones and homes, were but 
the " advance guard'''' of the large army that was to follow, 
and which in saving the nat'ional life, and in bringing so much 
honor to the State, was to give up to the sword, the bayonet 
and the bullet so much of life's best blood. 

" We struck our camp at break of day, we marched uuto the light, 
We hxid the rose of pleasure dowa, aad grasped the thorns of right; 
The drum's tones were joy to us, the fife was sweetly shrill, 
The flapping of our country's flag, it made our pulses thrill," 

Reaching Washington at a critical time, when Confederate 
troops flaunted their flag on Arlington Heights, claiming, de- 
fiantly, equality with the old banner of freedom floating from 
the dome of the National Capitol, when rebel pickets patrolled 
the banks of the Potomac and bivouacked under tlie old trees 
that shade the tomb of Washington. 

In the meantime authority had been received from the War 
Department to raise three regiments, already in progress of 
recruitment and pressing for service; but at the same time 
stating that it was *' important to reduce rather than increase 
the number.'''' Thus disappointing many companies outside of 
the organizations authorized, which led them to find service in 
other States. 

This limited and mistaken policy of the Government was 
not in aecord with the views of the Governor as to the neces- 
sities of the country at the time, nor in the immediate future; 
and deeming immediate preparation to meet the emergencies 
necessary, took the responsibility, and on June 19, 1861, es- 
tablished a "Camp of Instruction" at Fort Wayne for the 
officers and non-commissioned officers of the Fifth, Si.vth and 



ADDRESS OF CKN . JOHN ROBERTSON. 473 

Seventh Rei^iineiits, which was continued until August 1st 
following, when tlie regiments were sjieedily tilled up and 
took the Held in fine condition. 

The course of instruction at the canii» was that of the regu- 
lar arniv, bringing about most beneficial results, not only in 
the regiments present, but which afterwards l)ecame infused 
into many others; and although the only camp of the kind or- 
ganized during the war, it was universally recognized as a val- 
uable and timely measure. 

The great pressure for the acceptance of companies, outside 
those designated for the camp, continued unabated, while the 
personal applications and importunities of others for commis- 
sions seemed to be at a maximum, regardless of natural or 
acquired qualifications for the place. In his perplexing and 
responsible position, the Governor recognized ability and 
fealty to the cause as the test, more than personal friendship 
or |)olitical status. 

Michigan, in quick response to all requisitions, continued a 
vigorous recruitment, sending regiment after regiment to the 
front, arid had placed in the field up to December 81, ISOl, 
thirteen regiments of infantry, three of cavalry, and five bat- 
talions of artillery, with a total strength of 16,475 oflticers and 

men. 

" From city's dome 

And village home, 

The thousands come, 
Still marchiiiir to the 'Old Flair's' aid, 

Each knows his part, 

And every heart 
Moves onward, calm and undismayed 

By Treason's fiery dart." 

Meanwhile thirteen companies had found service in other 
States, thus sacrificing in their extreme patriotism and anxiety 
to be early in the field, the preferable service with the Michi- 
gan troops, thus ent itiiii'j tlitni to a credit not often given or 
ever remembered. 

In his eloquent anil fi>r('il)l(' message of January, 1S6'2, to the 
Legislature, then in extra session, and which was accepted at 
the time as the expression of the people of Michigan on the war 
question, the Governor occupied his usual strong ground for 
the Union, and was interestingly pungent against treason and 



474 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

rebellion. In closing, he urged a more active prosecution of 
the war, advocating with vigoi'ous earnestness the confiscation 
and seizure of rebel property wherever found, and its applica- 
tion to the maintenance of the armies in the field. 

The Legislature, fully endorsing the sentiments of the mes- 
sage, was equally firm, forcible and acrimonious in a resolu- 
tion on the same subject, and requesting the Governor to for- 
ward a copy thereof to the Michigan Senators and Representa- 
tives in Congress. 

Recruiting was successfully being prosecuted in the early 
part of 1862, five regiments of infantry and three batteries of 
artillery being in rapid progress of recruitment; but as the 
summer approached, and immediately following the disastrous 
Peninsular campaign, it had entirely failed, rendering the com- 
pletion of regiments almost impossible. Public meetings were 
resorted to as encouragement. One held at Detroit in .luly was 
furiously interrupted and dispersed by a mob of men supposed 
to be largely made up of Southern refugees and sympathizers 
with rebellion from Canada. This led to the assembling, in 
the open air at an early day, of an immense public gathering, 
composed of respectable and enthusiastic citizens of all 
classes and conditions, determined on establishing the right to 
hold and conduct such meetings. It was a complete success, 
severely rebuking the rebel element, avowing the most faith- 
ful and persistent prosecution of the war, pledging their per- 
sonal encouragement, subscribing means at the time for the 
recruitment of troops, and urging the re-inforcement of the 
armies in the field. 

This prompt action of the citizens had the desired effect, 
giving recruiting a new life and serving to end all demonstra- 
tions or personal efforts in the metropolis of the State, or else- 
where, opposing the raising of men for the armies of the 
Union. 

The influence and action of this meeting spreading through- 
out the State, aided greatly in completing the regiments re- 
ferred to and in the recruitment of eight others, all of which 
took the field in a little more than thirty days, an example of 
recruiting unequaled in this State, or perhaps in any other 
during the war. 

Individuals of every degree of prominence had interested 



ADDRESS OF GEN. ,U>llS KoBKKTSON. 475 

theinselvc'S in recruiting; war nu'otings were Leld in almost 
every village and township in the State. Representatives of 
all classes converted themselves either into reci'uits or recruit- 
ing otticers, and among the most efficient of the latter were 
ministers of the Gospel, some of whom le(l the men they had 
enlisted into the field. 

The progress of the struggle and conseijuent calls of the 
President for men to re-inforce the armies in the field de- 
manded the continuous raising of troops by the States, and 
Michigan, filling all her obligations had sent to the front, from 
the commencement of the war to December 31, 1862, six regi- 
ments of cavalry, twenty-seven regiments of infantry, nine 
batteries of light artillery, one regiment of engineers and six 
separate companies of infantry, which carried on their muster- 
in rolls 34,890 officers and men, not including the thirteen com- 
panies which found service iti other States. 

The patriotism of the men composing these regiments will 
not be questioned, as they entered the service in the darkest 
days of the war and when money. could not have entered into 
the question, as neither Government, State nor local bounties 
were being paid, while, physically, mentally and morally the 
composite of the regiments was made up of the best young 
men of the State, and probably were not excelled in the troops 
of any other State, or in the armies of any other nation. 

The military operations in the field in 1862 had not been 
much in favor of the ll^nion cause, yet neither the army nor 
the people of the country seemed much discouraged. In Michi- 
gan there was no faltering or timid foreboding of coming dis- 
astrous events, but a firm and positive determination to press 
on to ultimate and speedy success. 

In his message to the Legislature of 1863 the Governor com- 
mended the Michigan troops to their sympathy and support, 
alluding to their gallant and efficient services in the field in 
glowing, kindly words. 

In February following the Legislature expressed in strong 
terms in a resolution (lie sentiments of the people on the war 
question, saying: 'That we are unalterably o|)posed to any 
terms of compromise and accommodation with the rebels, 
while under arms and acting in hostility to the Government 
of the Union, and on this we express but (;ne sentiment — un- 



4:76 Michigan's vSemi-centennial. 

conditional submission and obedience to the laws and Constitu- 
tion of the Union." 

This Legislature also passed acts authorizing the payment 
of bounties, and generously appropriating $20,000 to assist 
wounded and sick soldiers; to be distributed by agencies estab- 
lished by the Governor. 

In February a draft was accomplished under the State law, 
with very small results. In March following Congress enacted 
a law making provision for drafting in localities where quotas 
were unfilled, assigning the necessary Government officers to 
carry it into effect. The system was continued until the close 
of the war, but was very little enforced in Michigan, as most 
of her troops preferred to volunteer. 

A call was made by the President for 300,000 men specially 
intended for re-inforcing depleted regiments in the field. A 
proclamation was at once published, urging a prompt and 
effective response, in which the Governor said: 

"This call is ior soldiers to fill the ranks of the regiments in 
the field — those regiments which, by long and gallant service, 
have wasted their numbers in the same proportion that they 
have made a distinguished name, both for themselves and the 
State. The people of Michigan will recognize this as a duty 
already too long delayed. Our young men, I trust, will hasten 
to stand beside the heroes of Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicks- 
burg, Stone River and Uhickamauga. 

"The hopes of the rebellion are steadily perishing. The 
armies of the Republic are in the midst of their country and 
they have not the power to expel them. 

" Fill up the ranks once more and the next blast of the 
bugle for an advance will sound the knell of revolution and 
herald in the return of peace. 

" Fellow citizens, let us do it icillingly, gallantly, jotjousli/. 
The people of Michigan have heretofore earned the gratitude 
of the country by their promptness and energy in the support 
of the Government." 

This appeal was received by the people of the State with 
the same cordial response that had charaeterizeii their action 
on all previous demands of the Government, and they went to 
work with their usual alacrity and success. 

During 1803, although only five regiments of cavalry, two 
of infantry and three batteries had been sent to the front, yet, 
together with recruits, nearly 14,000 had been recruited, and 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN KOBERTSON. 4r ( i 

since the commencement of the war a total of nearly 54,000 
men had been sent by the State to the armies in the field. 

In November, 18G3, on information from the War Depart- 
ment, tlie military authorities in Detroit discovered a plot 
involving the complicity of the rebel government having in 
view the liberation of the rebel prisoners, all officers, on Kelly's 
Island, near Sandusky, Oliio, but it was frustrated by a timely 
report to the commander of the U. S. steamer Michigan, then 
lying near that island. An attempt to put it into force and 
accomplish the purpose was made by the seizure of the small 
steamer Philo Parsons, then running between Detroit and 
Sandusky, by an armed party led by liennett G. Hurley, 
holding a commission as master in the rebel navy, numbering, 
in all, about thirty persons, taking passage at Detroit and 
Amherstburg, in Canada, who on the way down took forcible 
possession of her and robbed her clerk of all the money on 
board; and in the meantime had taken and sunk the steamer 
Islau'l (^ueen on her way to Detroit, making prisoners the crew 
and passengers. On reaching a 'short distance from the island, 
not receiving an expected signal, the project was abandoned 
and the steamer returned to Sandwich, where she was pillaged 
and then surrendeix'd to the crew. 

The important event occurring in the winter of 1863-1864 
was the return of the veterans, 5,54.5 strong, who had re-en- 
listed for another term of service, entitling their respective 
organizations to the designation of veterans. 

During the prosecution of the war there were many encour- 
aging and promising features developed that indicated a 
successful and satisfactory end of the rebellion; but none more 
foreil)le or of greater import, or that will fill a brighter page 
in history, than the timely and glorious tiiliutv voluntarily 
made to their country by the veterans of the war. .Michigan 
was proud of her veterans, scarred, wounded and weather- 
beaten as they were; glorious evidences of faithful service, true 
l)ravery and gallant deeds, and fully appieeiated their true 
devotion and great sacritii-i'. 

A singular tact was estal)lished regarding tlii' Michigan 
soldiers of the war, and particularly among the re-enlisted 
veterans, both by personal observation and the examination of 
descriptive lists, that a large prtipurtion of those who stood 



478 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

the service best and endured the longest, bore strong marks of 
the nervo- sanguine temperament, having florid complexions, 
some with red or tawny beards, most of them having brown or 
light brown hair, and some had red hair, wliile few had dark 
con)plexions, black hair or black beards, clearly showing that 
a very large number of both officers and men whose endurance 
enabled them to undertake and accomplish the most arduous 
service were of the com|)]exion and temperament referred to. 
This was so noticeable in one of the Michigan regiments that 
the colonel, when he had a detail to make involving a necessity 
for great endurance in overcoming hardships, directed that 
sandy-haired men be selected. 

Prominent among the operations of 1863 was the important 
battle of Gettysburg, in wliich the Michigan troops bore a 
conspicuous part — that battle, which in effect proclaimed with 
most pronounced force to the monster rebellion: "Thus far 
hast thou dared to come, but must advance no farther at thy 
peril; back to thy rebel den; henceforth thou canst only fight 
on the defensive, for thy aggressive power is broken, and thou 
must crumble to pieces until thou art dead, thy rebel spirit 
crushed to atoms, never to rise again." 

The Legislature of 1864 authorized an increase of State 
bounty, and townships and wards of cities were also empow- 
ered to raise moneys for the same purpose. In the meantime 
calls for men continued, and the Governor took the necessary 
means to respond, pointing out by proclamation, in explicit 
terms, the readiest and most feasible plans to raise the required 
quotas. 

About this time, under an act of Congress, States were 
allowed to recruit colored troops from the States in rebellion, 
and authorized the appointment of agents for that service. 
This, however, the Governor declined to do, saying that our 
only resource will be that which has heretofore been found 
sufficient, the j)atriotism of our people. He did not, therefore, 
take advantage of the provisions of the act, as he did not approve 
of, nor would he encourage, this mode of raising soldiers for the 
armies, thereby coinci<ling with the views of most of the promi- 
nent generals of the array. Although it may here be stated that 
several eastern States were hasty in embracing the opportunity. 

Regiments continued to be recruited and formed for service, 



ADDRESS OK GEN. JOHN KODEKTSON. 479 

while the reports showed that from the beuiiiiiiiig of the war 
to December 31, 18t>:3, the State had fiiriiislied 53,749 men, 
and that during the first ten months of 1864 it liad raised 
27,6l(j, exhibiting tiie striking fact that in tliat time more than 
half as many men had been recruited as were during the first 
three years of the war. The strongest evidence possible that 
Michigan had not weakened in lier dut}', nor lessened her early 
determination of prosecuting the war to a successful and satis- 
factory termination, the enlistments up to November 1st, 1864, 
giving 81,365 of a total credit. During the year only five 
legiments of infantry and two batteries of artillery had been 
orgaiiizi'd, tlic regiments in the licKl receiving the balance of 
recruits. 

In accortlance with an act of the Legislature, approved 
February 5th, 1804, to enable the qualified electors of this 
State in the military service to vote at certain elections, the 
same were held amongst the Michigan troops in the service of 
the United States on the 7th day of November, 1864. They 
took place under the supervision of commissioners appointed, 
and were conducted in com|)liance with the instructions 
contained in letter of ap|)ointment by the Governt)r. 

The result gave Henry II. Crapo, Rejuiblican, 9.612 votes 
for Gt)verni)r, wliih' 2,992 were given to William M. Fenton, 
Democrat. 

In view of the exposed condition of the frontier in Novem- 
ber, 1S64, being then threatened by reltel refugees and agents 
of the rebel government, under pay, who had found cheerful 
welcome, congenial companions, and a safe asylum in Canada 
with tlie rebellion sympathisers, tiieii unaccountal)ly numer- 
ous, and also in view of the limited force of troojts available 
for its defence, on the recommendation of Major General 
Hooker, then cotninanding the department, the Thirtieth 
Regiment of infaniry was recruited and organized to serve 
for one year for duty along the Detroit and St. Clair rivers. 

The approach of winter caused no abatement of activity in 
the Union armies, nor cliecked the increasing magnitude of 
the operations. 

" The end of operations of the year found the Army of the 
Potomac in tlie trenches before Petersburg, holding Lee as in 
a trap, Sherman's army in possession of Savannah, and Thomas 
successful in Tennessee. 



480 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

"This memorable year was fraught with great results to 
the nation, eflFected by the unparalleled fighting of hosts of 
men, wading deep in human bloo<I through carnage dense. 

"The day and night advances of Grant's army on Richmond 
were, to the Northern people, movements producing intense 
anxiety, strong hope, fervent prayers for success, and sorrow 
and sadness for the patriots passing away. 

"The desperate advance of Hood on Nashville had been 
most successfully met by General Thomas, his army com- 
pletely defeated, routed and driven in hot haste southward in 
a most demoralized condition. 

" General Sherman had gallantly driven the enemy from be- 
yond Chattanooga and onwards, had battered down his strong 
works at Atlanta; then, bidding farewell to his friends, and 
placing both flanks of his noble army in air, swung off for the 
sea, leaving the nation in great ignorance and intense uneasi- 
ness as to his movements and safety, and is first heard from in 
the dispatch of General Howard, of his army, saying: 'We 
have had perfect success, and the army in fine spirits;' and 
then by General Sherman himself, sending to Abraham Lin- 
coln a telegram covering the capture of Savannah as a Christ- 
mas present." 

Michigan commenced' 1865 with that determination to crush 
out the rebellion which characterized her soldiers and people 
so far during the war. 

In his retiring message to the Legislature, Governor Blair 
alluded to the Michigan soldiers in the following beautiful and 
kindly language: 

"Again, for the last time, I commend the Michigan troops 
to your continued care and support. They have never failed 
in their duty to the country or to the State. Upon every great 
battle-field of the war their shouts have been heard and their 
sturdy blows have been delivered for the Union and victory. 
Their hard-earned fame is the treasure of every household in 
the Slate, and the red blood of their veins has been poured out 
in large measure to redeem the rebellious South from its great 
sin and curse. At this hour they stand under the flag of their 
country, far away from home, in every quarter where the 
enemy is to be met — along the banks of the Father of Waters, 
in the great city at its mouths, on the Arkansas, in the captured 
forts of the Gulf, by the waters of the Cumberland, the Ten- 
nes!>.e(f and of the Savannah, in the chief city of the Km]>ire 
State of the South, among the con(piering columns in the Val- 
ley of the Shenandoah, and in the trenches under the eye of 
the Lieutenant General in the great leaguer of Petersburg and 
Richmond. Alas, that they are also perishing of cold and 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBKUTSON. 481 

hunger, and disease, in the filthy rebel prisons and pestilential 
camps of tlie South. In every situation their braveiy has now 
tlie approval of their commanders, and their heroic endurance 
of hardships has added lustre to their name. It is my sole re- 
gret at quitting othce that I part with them. My earnest 
efforts for their good shall follow them while I live, and now, 
from this place, I bid them hail and farewell!" 

Following Governor Blair, Henry H. Crapo took the execu- 
tive chair, bringing to the service of the State and the nation 
strong and inherent patriotism, great ability, scru))uIous hon- 
esty of purpose, and a most remarkable and pre-eminent degree 
of physical and mental energy, with almost continuous appli- 
cation, giving his administiation great eflticiency and much 
popularity. The Governor, in his inaugural message delivered 
to the Legislature, referring to the Michigan troops in the field, 
for whom he always entertained the most profound respect 
and the highest appreciation of their valuable services, says, 
with much eloquence and feeling, while alluding to the great 
loss of life among them, and of the cause in which they were 
then still engaged: 

"This is indeed a fearful sacrifice to be made even in the 
cause of liberty, justice and humanity, and fearful is the 
penalty and terrible is the suffering which the authors and 
leaders of treason and rebellion deserve and must endure as a 
just consequence of this enormous crime. These brave men — 
the Michigan troops — are worthy of all praise. I commend 
them to your warmest sympathies, to your highest regards, to 
your active supj^ort. They have done heroic deeds on every 
battlefield; they have won a name for undaunted courage in 
every conflict with a deadly and persistent foe; they have en- 
dured hardships and privations without a murmur, and their 
loyalty and patiiotism have never yet been tarnished. Those 
who have fallen upon the battlefield or on the march, or have 
died in hos|)itals — who now slee)>in death, martyrs to the cause 
of human freedom — our gratitude, our sympathies can never 
reach. But of those who suffer through loss of them, and of 
those 1>rave veterans who yet survive, we should ever be mind- 
ful. A nation's gratitude should ever be theirs; and justice, at 
least, should be their reward." 

Nor were they forgotten by the Legislature of 1805, repre- 
senting the peojde of the State; for early in the session the fol- 
lowing concuircnt resnlutioii was adopted: 
31 



482 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

"That on this anniversar_v of the birthday of tlie Father of 
his Country, the thanks of this Loi^islature, and of the people 
of the State, are iiereby tendered to the soldiers of Michiofan; 
who {)romptly responded to the call of their countrj' in its time 
of peril; and who by their fortitude and soldierly bearing 
under tlu; privations and hardships of a soldier's life, in 
camj) and fiehl, throu<j^h inarch and siege, and l)y their indom- 
itable bravery and heroism on scores of battlefields, have won 
exalted honor to themselves and crowned with unfading glory 
the name and fame of Michigan." 

The Legislature also adopted a resolution reaffirming the devo- 
tion of the Commonwealth to the Constitution and Government 
of the United States, and declaring the earnest determination 
of the people to do everything in their jjower to support and 
sustain the national administration in all measures for the vig- 
orous prosecution of the existing war, the utter overthrow of 
armed rebellion and the punishment of traitors, until a per- 
manent peace should be secured, based upon the sul)mission of 
the rebels, the supremacy of the Government, and the estab- 
lishment of the Federal Union in all its entirety, one and in- 
separable, througliout the entire land. 

During the session, the following concurrent resolution was 
unanimously passed: 

" Whereas, The Hon. Austin Blair, whose valedictory mes- 
sage was delivered to this Legislature on the fifth of January, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-five, has retired to private life; 

"And, WHEREAS, The foui- years of his administration have 
been the most laborious, as well as the most j)erilous in the 
history both of the State and of the nation, with eleven of the 
most Southern States banded together in the most unjustifiable 
rebellion that the world has ever known; 

" And, WHEREAS, Governor Blair's administration has been 
marked by eminent ability, rare integrity and unsurpassed suc- 
cess, as shown by the enlistments and organization into com- 
panies, regiments and batteries, in the most perfect military 
order, of over eighty thousand men, as brave, true, and patri- 
otic as ever bared their breasts to any foe; therefore, 

"Resolved, (the Senate concurring), That the thanks of the 
people of Michigan, through this Legislature, are hereby cor- 
dially tendered to ex-Governor Blair for the able and satisfac- 
tory manner in which he has, during his administration of the 
last four years, been able to conduct the atfaii's of the Govei'u- 
ment of the State," 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 483 

It also antiiorized the payment of ^150 State bounty and 
empowered townships and wards to pay §100. These bounties 
continued to be paid until April 14, 1805, when recruiting 
ended in the State. 

Only one regiment had been sent to the front in 1SG5, but 
the State had received a credit since November 1st, 1864, of 
8,683, including 430 enlisted during th« war in the navy 
sufficient to place a total credit at the War Department of 
90,048 men. Of these, 14,855 fell under the Flag, many killed 
on the battletield, or died of wounds or of disease consequent 
to the hardship in the Held or by exposure in rebel prisons. 

Under a resolution of the Legislature of 1869, approved by 
Governor Henry P. Baldwin, the Adjutant-General was in- 
structed to prepare a Roll of Honor to contain the names of all 
Michigan soldiers who died while in the service. This has 
been accomplished, beautifully bound in two volumes, and 
placed in the State Library at Lansing. 

During the war the State had raised and organized eleven 
regiments of cavalry, thirty-six of infantry, one of engineers 
and mechanics, one of twelve batteries of light artillery, two 
independent batteries and ten in(k'))endent companies of in- 
fantry and sharpshooters, while thirteen companies had been 
recruited by other States. 

Michigan had speedily and clieerfuUy responded to the sev- 
eral calls for troops, fully complying with every requirement 
of the Government. Michigan was earnest in the cause, and 
sought no other course than to fight on until a peace Avas suc- 
cessfully conquered and until every State was brought into 
submission to the power of the National Government and 
made to acknowledge allegiance to the Constitution and the 
laws of the land. Michigan, as evinced by the patriotism of 
her citizens at home, and the bravery of her troops in the field, 
was truly loyal and freely gave her influence, her means, and 
the blood of her people to put dowMi the unjust, unreasonable 
and selfish rebellion. 

On one occasion during the feudal times in Scotland, when 
chief met chief in battle array, two chiefs, witli their adher- 
ents, were in one of the glens of that mountainous country, 
engaged in mortal combat, hand to hand and foot to foot, 
with claymore and skein dhu. One of them becoming much 



484 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

worsted, excited the fealty of one of his clan, a very old High- 
lander, who stood on a projecting crag in the face of the 
mountain watching the contest with intense interest, too 
old to fight: he was merely a looker-on. He had several 
sons engaged for his chief. One falling by the hand of an 
opponent, the old man shouted in his Celtic tongue " A}iother 
son for the Chief!'''' And as one after another of his sons fell 
he continued the shout, " Another son for the Chief/ " and 
again, ^'•Another son for the Chief I^"* until the last had fallen. 
Then quickly drawing the broadsword of his fathers from its 
rusted scabbard he shouted with all the energy and enthusiasm 
of a true Highlander, ^^ Myself for the Chief!'''' and rushing 
down the mountain side into the affray, was soon cut down 
and lay with his gallant sons in a gory bed. 

So it was in many instances in Michigan during our recent 
war. Son after son went to the field, until all had gone, and 
one after another fell for the Union. Then the old father, in 
his agony of grief, with desperate loyalty and true patriotism 
in his heart, giving up all, family, friends and home, rushes to 
the front shouting, '■'■Myself for the Union ! " 

The Michigan troops on the whole during the war encoun- 
tered the enemy on 800 separate occasions and at different 
dates and places while upholding and defending the flag. 

Of the services of Michigan men in the navy during the war 
there is, unfortunately, but little known, as reports thereof were 
not made to the State military authorities; but undoubtedly 
they v/ere at their posts, distinguished officers and brave men 
under the flag of their country, with Foote, Dupont, Porter and 
Farragut, and received their proportion of the general credit. 

Michigan was well represented at the surrender of Lee and 
Johnston — the termination and death of the rebellion; and a 
Michigan regiment captured the President of the so-called 
Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, in his inglorious flight to esca])e 
deserved punishment for his infamous treason and rebellion. 

" We left thee no confederate band, 
No symbol of the lost command, 
To be a dagger in their hand, 
From which we wrenched the sword." 

Wlu-n the regiments returned to their State they brought 
with them their colors, not one dishonored, neither blot nor 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN KOBEKTSON. 485 

stain on their escutcheons, but all distinguished, glorious em- 
blems, bearing record of many battles. Beiieatii their folds more 
than ninety thousand of the bravest sons of the State pressed 
forward through privations and amid dangers, to share largely 
and gloriously in nearly all the battles of the great rebellion. 
With unyielding devotion many gave up their lives that the 
nation might live, while the bleeding wounds and the trials 
and sufferings of others attested their fidelity to the Union and 
their valor in its behalf. And when their work was accom- 
plished, in the day of their triumph, treasuring no spirit of 
resentment, with moderation unsurpassed, these heroes freely 
forgave their enemies, and restoring peace on unparalleled 
terms of generosity to the vanquished, betook themselves again 
to the quiet pursuits of life, by energy, industry and thrift, to 
renew prosperity and make good the waste of war. 

The flags bear the National and Stale emblems, and are the 
cherished and venerated mementoes of great public services 
rendered by the soldiers of the State to the Republic, and of 
regimental bravery. Arouml them will cluster hallowed 
memories of State pride, of national grandeur and prowess, of 
individual heroism and patriotism, of fallen comrades and 
family bereavements. 

"Those banners, soiled with dust and smoke, 

And rent by shot and shell, 
That through the serried phalanx broke, 

What terrors could they tell! 
What tales of sudden pain and death. 

In every cannon's boom; 
When e'en the bravest held his breath. 

And waited for his doom." 

Under date of June \Mh, 1865, the war department author- 
ized the chief mustering oflicer of this State to turn over to 
the Governor, at his request, all the regimental colors of 
Michigan regiments then in his charge, or that might thereafter 
come into his possession under the provisions of the order 
referred to. 

On the Fourth of July, 1^66, those colors were formally 
presented in Detroit, through the Governor, to the State, and 
were deposited in its archives, to be sacredly kept and carefully 
preserved. 



486 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

The setting apart of the national birthday for the purpose, 
was most appropriate. Its hallowed memories reminded the 
people of the gallant struggle of their forefathers in establish- 
ing the government, in the maintenance of which so many 
present had followed their Hags to glorious victory. 

A cordial invitation having been extended by the Governor 
to all who had served in the war, while the State authorities 
were cheerfully aided and liberally sustained by the citizens of 
Detroit, and the affair was honored by a magnificent celebra- 
tion, and participated in by the most numerous assembly of the 
people from all parts of the State ever congregated within its 
borders; and for the purpose of honoring the day, and especi- 
ally the occasion, as well as giving the people of the State an 
opportunity to witness the emblems of State prowess, and of 
patriotism, bravery and gallant services, a procession was 
arranged and carried into effect, under the direction of General 
James E. Pittman, who at the time was Inspector General of 
the State, and who was selected and appointed by the Governor 
as chief marshal of the day. 

The procession was formed in divisions, under selected 
commanders, and made up of the several regiments carrying 
their old colors, presenting the finest appearance possible. It 
was remarkable with what pride each color-bearer held aloft the 
banner under which he had served, and with what elasticity of 
step and erect bearing the whole marched to the strains of 
martial music, to which they had been accustomed. 

"1 saw the soldiers come today 

From battlefields afar; 
No conqueror rode before their way, 

On his triumphal car; 
But captains, like themselves, on foot. 

And banners sadly torn, 
All grandly eloquent, though mute, 

In pride and glory borne " 

Those old flags, fluttering proudly in the breeze, bearing the 
mark of many bullets and the record of many battles, under 
which friends had fought and loved ones fallen, strengthened 
the people in their love of country, and made them firmer in 
their faith of the lasting union of the Republic. They were 
gladdened in heart at the presence of the veterans of the army 



ADI)RP:88 of gen. JOHN ROBERTSON. 487 

of Michigan. Yet, alas! their joy was mixed with sorrow; 
fourteen thousand and over of that army had joined the 
" Legion of tlie dea<l; "' they had fallen under the flag on many 
battlefields. Most of them, in a spirit of humanity and vener- 
ation, have bi'en gathered l)y kindly hands into the beautiful 
cemeteries, ])rovided by a beneficent government, oi' by their 
friends at liome, and now sleep in their windowless palaces of 
rest, where they will lie in peace until the last reveille; but 
some of them yet lie where their comrades left them, by the 
way-sides, on the sunny brows of many hills, in the dense 
forests, in the valh'vs and under the orange and palm trees, 
on the banks of rivers, under the deep, dark waters, and on the 
sea beach, where the restless waves forever chant their 
requiem. lUit they lie under the flag they defended and made 
stainless, and in the land they saved and made free. 

■■ Thank God! there beams o'er land and sea. 
Our blazing star of victory ; 
And everywhere, from main to main, 
The ' Old Flag ' flies and rules again." 

At the close of the procession, which was one of the finest 
and most interesting displays ever witnessed in Michigan, the 
veterans were massed in front of the speaker's stand on 
Campus Martins, anti delivered their flags to the Governor, 
when, after a prayer by Bishop S. A. McCoskry, the apjjropri- 
ate addresses were made by Mayor M. I. Mills, General Will- 
cox and Governoi- Crapo. 

The ceremony concluded with ;i benediction by Rev. George 
Durtield, when the veterans marched to the depot of the Michi- 
gan Central Railroad, where they partook of a substantial 
repast, prepared for them by the citizens, and where they were 
waited upon at tables by hulies and gentlemen of the city. 

In the interior arrangement of the New Capitol at Lan.sing, 
the soldier ami his services were not forgotten, but were most 
favorably and substantially remembered. With almost a pro- 
fuse liberality, which should be fidly appreciated, a large and 
commodious room was set apart, designated as the "Museum."' 
This is the deposit of the " Michigan Battle Flags," properly 
placed in regimental order in a magnificent vertical case of 
large dimensions, novel in construction and of beautiful pro- 
|)orlioiis, reaching almost to the ceiling, erected in the center 



488 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

of the apartment, superbly mounted with heavy plate glass, 
which, coupled with the bullet-marked and battle-worn flags, 
is the grandest and most impressive monument to the soldiers 
of Michigan. 

A beautiful idea is conveyed with regard to the American 
flag in the remarks of a little boy, whose parents resided near 
Bardstown, Kentucky, when a Michigan regiment was sta- 
tioned there. Although very young, a mere child really, he 
had learned the difference in the appearance of Union and 
Confederate soldiers, having seen both, and he had also taken 
notice of the colors that composed the flags of both. One 
morning, discovering a beautiful rainbow arching the heavens, 
suspended, as it were, from the sky, he hurried to his mother, 
exclaiming with great earnestness, pointing upwards with 
both his little hands, "Mother! mother! oh, mother! God is a 
Union man!" His mother questioned him as to his reasons 
fer thinking so; he replied, while a glow of delight flashed on 
his countenance, his little eyes beaming with brightness, " I 
know he is a Union man, mother, for I have seen his flag in 
heaven, and it is red, white and blue." 

The successful operations of the Union armies having 
brought the war to a close by the complete overthrow of the 
rebel forces early in the spring of 1865, orders were at once 
issued to abandon all pending measures for the re-inforcement 
of the national arms and recruiting, as well as process under 
the drafting system ceased on the 14th of April. 

With the surrender of the rebel army under General Lee, on 
the 9th of April, 1865, and the subsequent surrender of Gen- 
eral Johnston's army in the same month, the war which had 
been waged against the Union ended, and soon after the 
troops belonging to the various States began to leave the field. 

The Michigan troops being among the first to receive orders, 
the Twentieth Regiment arrived in the State June 4th, and 
others followed in succession up to June 10th, 1866, when the 
Third and Fourth Regiments of infantry reached the State, 
being the last belonging to the State to leave the field. 

In June, 1865, anticipating the early return of troops from 
the field, a meeting of citizens was held in Detroit, when 
measures were taken to arrange for a proper reception at that 
place of the returning regiments, and to provide such refresh- 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 489 

meiits as tliey might stand in nctd of. With this in view, 
committees were selected and appointed. 

The services of tliese committees wore gratuitous, involving 
much labor, both early and late. They were aided in their 
attentive services by a number of ladies and gentlemen who 
gave their attendance at the tables, while the citizens generally 
contributed liberally, rendering the object an entire success. 
From June 4, 1865, down to June 10, 1866, 19,510 Michigan 
and 3,506 Wisconsin troops were hospitably received and sub- 
stantially entertained. 

Through the liberality of the people of Jackson, then a 
rendezvous for returned troops, like arrangements were made, 
and during the time before mentioned over 10,569 Michigan 
soldiers received kindly attention and l)ountiful entertainment 
on their arrival there. 

On the 14th of June, 1865, Governor Crapo made a proclama- 
tion of welcome and tiianks to the returning Michigan troops, 
of which the following is an extract: 

"In the name of the people of'Michigan I thank you tor the 
honor you have done us by your valor, your soldierly bearing, 
your invincible courage, everywhere dis})layed, whether upon 
the field of battle, in the perilous assault, or in the deadly 
breach; for your patience under the fatigues and privations 
and sufferings incident to war, and for your discipline and 
ready obedience to the orders of your superiors. We are 
prt)ud in believing that when the history of this rebellion 
shall have been written, where all have done well, none will 
stand higher on the roll of fame than the officers and soldiers 
sent to the field from the loyal and i)atriotic State of Michi- 
gan." 

The English war with Russia in the Crimea brought 
prominently to notice Florence Nightingale; her superintending 
care and great service in affording relief to the wounded and 
sick in that great event, have given her a bright page in history, 
while her name and fame is known throughout the globe. 
The Florence Nightingales of America during our own war 
were numbered by thousands, and all are deserving of remem- 
brance and honor imperishable. Michigan may well take 
credit for their distinguished and noble service in the war. 
They were numerous in the field from the commencement to the 
end, whik' both there and in tlie State they wrrc patriotic to 



4-90 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

an extreme, some of them even serving in the ranks, and a 
large portion of them, either individually or in associations, 
earnestly devoted their time and labor in many ways to supply 
wants of the absent soldier; their interest in his behalf was 
intense, while their industry for his benefit was continuous; 
and whether their names and services are made historical or 
not, they are engraven on the hearts of recipients while life 
lasts. 

Stand by the flag, on land and on sea, was the motto of the 
women of Michigan, inspiring and scattering patriotism 
amongst the people, and in the ranks at the front. Never 
doubting, always hopeful, ever confident of success, trusting 
in God's help for the cause of liberty, humanity and right. 

From the time that Sumter was fired on until Lee and 
Johnston laid down their rebellious arms, and Davis fled for 
his life, the Christian church in Michigan proved, by its 
strongly pronounced patriotism and manifest devotion to the 
cause of the Union, an element of great power. It encouraged 
by word and deed the soldier in the field, aided greatly in the 
recruitment of men by its approval of the war, and its expressed 
faith in its successful termination in favor of the Union, and 
by its forcible denouncement of rebels and those who sympath- 
ised with them and opposed the war. 

The valuable services of the Michigan press cannot be over- 
estimated. For the bold advocacy of the entirety of the 
Union, the slrengtliening of the hands of civil oflicials and 
moulding and holding public opinion in favor of loyalty to the 
government. The faithful encouragement of patriotism among 
the masses at home, and inspiring those at the front with 
courage and a heroism leading to gallant deeds, and with the 
cheerful hope of ultimate victory. 

In Michigan as much care as possible was taken -in the 
selection of oflicers by the Governor and those authorized to 
raise regiments, yet it was necessary to take into account their 
ability to recruit a required number of men, a ('ustom more of 
necessity than of fitness; consecjuently military qualifications 
were more or less overlooked. Thus in the new regiments a 
defect in officers was more likely to prevail to a greater extent 
than in the regiments in the field. In the latter, with few 
exceptions, a[)point ments and promotions were made from the 



ADDRESS OF GK:N. JOHN ROBERTSON. 491 

ranks, upon tlio rocommendatioii of regimental commanders, 
ifTiioring tlie unmilitary and pernicious system of elections 
liraeticc'd among the troops of most other States, which 
inKpu'stionably gave an opi)ortunity to overlook merit, and 
had a tendency to cripple discipline. 

In the Michigan regiments, when in the field, the promotions 
were mostly made within the regiments, and tlie appointments 
in a very large proportion were made from the ranks, the 
exception being a few from the regular service and from citi- 
zens to fill vacancies conditional to raising a certain number of 
men for the depleted regiments in which they were commis- 
sioned, a system which, although practiced in a limited manner, 
was never recognized by the appointing power with much 
favor, and in most instances such a))pointments were made on 
the request of colonels of regiments with a view to strength- 
ening their commands. 

During the war 4,007 officers were commissioned, of whom 
2,067 left the State with regiments, 1,940 were promoted from 
the ranks, with the exception of ten appointed from the regular 
army, and a comparatively small number were commissioned 
to raise men in the State. 

Although it was an accepted truth that a great number who 
were in the ranks of 3Iichigan regiments in the field and who 
failed to be commissioned had the intelligence, education and 
ability requisite for competent and efficient commissioned 
officers, nevertheless, but a comparative few only could be 
made officers; but this fact was generally understood and 
accepted by the people, and is now, that the greater honor 
belonged to the men in the ranks, although but seldom men- 
tioned in official reports, and, notwithstanding they had the 
least pay, they certainly did not fight the least; while the 
officers may be regarded as the motive power, the men in the 
ranks were the power itself, and are equally deserving of a 
place on public records, as well as in the history of the war. 

A prophecy was generally advanced early in the war, and 
even up to its close, that idleness, debauchery and crime would 
characterize the release from military restraint, and the return 
to the State of so many men who iiad been exposed to a ser- 
vice, judging from results in other armies, likely to engender 
irregular, improvident and dissolute habits, leading to a law- 



492 MIOHIGAN'8 SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 

less course of conduct, tending to the most deplorable con- 
sequences. 

Alas for the prophets ! their sayings were but the idle bab- 
blings of the most distrustful of humanity. By over twenty 
years of experience since their return their theory has been 
completely refuted by a practice of honesty, virtue and thrift, 
most commendable, comparing favorably with our citizens 
generally; while many of them have filled high places of trust 
in the government of the country, as well as in the adminis- 
tration of the State, and in the ordinary avocations of life. 
They proved noble examples in war and are none the less in 
peace. While the young Frenchman proudly boasts of his 
father's membership in the "Legion of Honor of France," the 
young American may with justifiable pride reply, " my father 
belongs to the 'Grand Army of the Republic ' of America!" 

There was a time when many doubted the unity of the 
armies for a vigorous prosecution of the war; but they were 
only the doubtings of the timid and unthinking, forgetting the 
prevailing characteristics of the American soldiers, a strong 
inherent element of individuality unequalled in any other ar- 
mies, intelligence and moral courage, centering in true patriot- 
ism, the honor of their State, love of family and of home, and 
of the respect of their fellow-citizens, all so forcibly illustrated 
in the service of tlie Michigan troops. 

The high and imposing range of the Grampian Hills in the 
Highlands of Scotland are peculiarly wild, startling and 
rugged in their outlines, terminating in the bold projecting 
rock Craigellachie, that has withstood the storms of ages, the 
rendezvous of the Clan Grant in feudal war time, who had 
adopted its name as their "slogan" or war cry; and when re- 
sisting the furious charge of their enemy, the Highlanders 
would sound their war cry along the line, " Stand fast, Craig- 
ellachie," and they stood fast as the rock itself; so it was in 
many instances during our great war. The Michigan troops 
in the field, when resisting the charge of the Confederate 
horde, remembering the bold and firm stand of their State in 
the war, would pass along the line in spirit, if not in words, 
'* Stand fast, Michigan," and they stood bold and firm as Craig- 
ellachie. 
j^ The war found tlie people of Michigan in the fullest enjoy- 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN R(1BERTSON. 403 

ment of peace and advancing prosperity; tlieir minds had not 
been burdened with the thought of a coming exigency, which 
was to test their patriotism and tax tlit-ir energies and resources 
to such an extreme. The idea had never entered tlieir minds 
that the first gun fired from Sumter was the first demand for 
men which was to be continued until 90,000 and over 
would take the field, of which over 14,000 would never return 
alive, or that it gave the first notice of a series of drafts on 
their treasury, which would finally reach over fourteen millions 
of dollars. But the story had to be told and the drafts were 
fully honored. 

The Michigan "contingent" in the war was largely from 
the more respectable young men of the community. Coming 
from all avocations of life, many of them ha<l lequired obedi- 
ence of others at home; they had to obey others in the field. 
Yet they were patient under the most rigid discipline; per- 
sistent in the long and tedious march, cheerful and untiring in 
the trenches, apt in experiment, and most ingenious in con- 
struction, they added to all these 'qualifications and merits true 
courage in the field, while almost every important action illus- 
trated their heroism, and almost every battlefield was con- 
secrated witli their blood. Their services were eagerly sought 
for by all the best Generals, whether to construct a defence, 
lead a " forlorn hope " or charge a battery. 

The alarming tocsin had been sounded, the momentous shot 
had been heard, the flag had been insulted, the laws of the 
land defied, treason and armed rebellion defiant and war in- 
evitable. Michigan was prompt at the outset; no question as 
to cause, no thought as to result, no summary of cost nor esti- 
mate of lives to be lost. All! all were merged in the im- 
mediate exigency of the time. Micliigan troops, eager for the 
conflict, were early at the fiont and were found there at the 
close. 

In isi;i they had served with McDowell at Blackburn's 
Ford and liull Run, with Grant at Shiloh, with McClellan in 
West Virginia. In 1862 they were with him on the Penin- 
sula and in Maryland, with Banks in the Valley of the She- 
nandoah, in Louisiana with Butler, in Missouri with Mulligan, 
and with Pope in Virginia. In 1 Sti^ the campaigns of Hooker 
in Virginia and Mead in Pennsylvania found them at the front. 



494 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

Burnside had them at Knoxville, Rosecrans at Stone River and 
Chickamauga, Grant at Vicksburg and Mission Ridge. In 
1864-5 they were with Thomas at Nashville, and prominent in 
the great flanking movements with Grant in the Wilderness, 
at Spottsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and in the great 
leaguer of Petersburg. They were on the wing with Sher- 
man on his matchless and victorious flight to the sea; with 
Sheridan and Custer in their brilliant achievements in the 
valley, and with Grant at Appomattox, the death place of the 
confederacy. 

The end of the war found a veteran array in the field, tried 
and true, which had triumphantly passed through a desperate 
national contest. Although having only been trained and dis- 
ciplined during a few years of service, it evinced a surprising 
development of military capacity, courage and endurance in 
the field, equal if not superior to the armies of other nations 
after many years of training which war brings with it. 

The histories of the time bear witness to the patriotism of 
the States which in the time of great peril gave their strong 
arms and means to preserve the nation; while Michigan 
proudly cherishes the remembrance of the valor of her troops 
as peculiarly her own, who in the great struggles of a pro- 
longed and gigantic warfare reflected undying lustre on her 
own escutcheon. 

The following table shows the aggregate numbers in detail 
of the credits allowed to each county in the State, during the 
operations of the enrollment S3'stera, together with the number 
of men enlisting previous to the adoption of that system, and 
reported to the Atljutant Genei'al's oftice as residents thereof, 
and the total, approximately, of the number of troops furnished 
by the several counties from the beginning to the close of the 
war: 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 



495 



COUNTIES. 



Allepan 

Antrim 

Alpena 

Barry 

Benzie 

Bay 

Branch 

Berrien 

Cass 

Calhoun 

Cheboygan 

iMinton 

Chippewa. 

Delta 

Emmet 

Eaton 

Genesee 

Gratiot 

Grand Traverse 

Hillsdale 

Houghton 

Huron 

Ingham 

Ionia 

Isabella 

Iosco 

Jackson 

Keweenaw 

Kent 

Kalamazoo 

Livingston 

Lenawee 

Leelanaw 

Lapeer 

Monroe 

Montcalm 

Macomb 

Menominee 

Marquette 

Schoolcraft 

.■Muskegon 

Mecosta 

Muson 

Manitou 

Manistee 

Mackinac ...... 

Midland 

Newaygo 

Ontonagon 

Oaklantl 

Oceana 

Ottawa 

Shiawassee 

St. Joseph 

Sanilac 

St riair 

Saginaw 

Tuscola 

Van Buren 

Washtenaw 

Wayne 



£3 






7-M 
11 
39 

6C4 
25 

2(il 

7S.S 

y<)() 

709 

1,423 

9 

558 

4 

1 

1 

69i 

807 

LOi 

80 

1,230 

137 

74 

819 

873 

53 

6 

1,311 

20 

9.S9 

1,246 

710 

1,94 

33 

620 

691 

251 

900 

19 

70 

248 
38 
25 



3E 
5 ■a 



69 
26 
54 
131 
61 
1,622 

m 

669 

484 

1,125 

■Si5 

779 

871 

211 

605 

1,741 

3.352 



96 



66 



25 
173 
246 
119 
295 



123 

206 
18 



111 
13 
12 
98 
79 
6 
2 
208 



3M 

205 

89 

224 

'i23 

115 

16 

149 



10 

3 

1 

212 

1 

106 

129 

96 

81 

199 

153 

39 

im 

334 
722 



« 2 



78 
4 

4' 

2 
37 
79 
49 
55 
123 

2 
15 



215 



42 
20 
191 
164 
139 
53 
5 



59 1 

98 
13 

3 
59 



13 
6 
66 
65 
153 
6 
178 



Term of Service 
Credited. 



16 
15 
5' 
32 
94 
7 
20 
75 
44 
52 
124 



83 
122 
59 
26 
' 12 
91 



19' 
91 

137 
99 
44 
84 

235 



218 
22 
37 
34 
89 
36 

183 
47 
59 

136 
58 



Totals 32,:i38 5,545 48:3 1.982 ♦4,231 13,026 105,31.498 14.629 44,514 89,173 



530 

18 

8 

301 

47 

35 

474 

555 

374 

690 

1 

155 

1 

12 

6 

346 

290 

156 

35 

442 



62 
479 



40 

14 

554 

1 

446 

612 

258 

563 

43 

209 

344 

138 

.320 



5 
103 



578 

37 

292 

159 

534 

62 

231 

166 

55 

341 

723 

703 



589 

10 

43 

515 

23 

311 

8U9 

900 

663 

1,221; 

15 

5911 

'^l 

12 

12l 

598, 

893 

ISO; 

62! 

1,137 

130 

137 

607 



46 
12 

1,191 

19 

1,19 f 

1,016 

706 

1,807 

33 

635 

733 

215 

894 

19 



253 
61 
25 



.391 

68; 
no. 

62 

1,506 

86, 

578 

.526 

873 

316 

971 

988 

298 

594 

1,.S77 

3,635l 



"To 






1,041 



7 
809 



163 

1,490 

1,724 

793 

1,942 

15 

860 

16 



1,134 

28 
51 

816 
7(1 

346 
1,286 

1,('39 

1,936 

16 

746 

5 

24 

18 

943 

1,18.3 

336 

97 

1,579 

1501 

199, 

1,090 

1,047 

86' 

26 

1 733 

20 

1,643 

1,661 

964 

2,377 

78' 

844 

1,079 

353 

1,216 

19 



72] 193 

357' 379 

92! 67 

47 12 



2 S 

= 3 

la 



21 

796 

1,3.35 

310 

74 

1,319 

310 

143 

1,007 

1,417 

51 

1 

1,479 

9!li 

2,571! 

1,560 

923 

2, 060 

20 

9321 

1,191 

287 

1,144 



?l 



82 

47 

74 

213 

62 

2,080 

123 

874 

086 

1,414 

379 

1,203 

1,154 

353 

939 

2,306 

4,313 



54 

199 

192 

1,63a 

IdO 

673 

1,067 

1 , 422 

402 

1.378 

885 

311 

915 

1.778 

4,870 



2,175 

28 

58 

1,625 

70 

511 

2,776 

3,179 

1 , 832 

3.878 

31 

1,606 

21 

24 

39 

1,741 

2,318 

646 

171 

2, 9;.'8 

460 

342 

2,097 

2,464 

137 

27 

3,2.32 

119 

4,214 

3.221 

1,887 

4,437 

98 

1,776 

2,270 

640 

2,360 

19 

265 

730 

159 

59 

10 

88 

47 

129 

412 

254 

3,718 

223 

1,5)7 

1,753 

2,836 

781 

2.581 

2.a39 

664 

1,884 

4,084 

9. 213 



* The total sum paid into the Treasury Department of the United States by 
drafted citizens of Michigan as commutation money, was >394,600.00. 



496 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

The product of soldiers and credits j'^ielded by the several 
counties, as exhibited in the table immediately foregoing, is in 
its aggregate, as previously intimated, below the total number 
known to have been furnished by the State. 

The report of the Adjutant General's Department for 1864 
showed that according to the records the actual number of 
men furnished by Michigan from the beginning of the war to 
November 1st, 1864, was 81,365. 

Add the number of men commuting 1,983 

And the total credits to that time were 83,347 

The number of men credited by enlistment and draft from No- 
vember 1st, 1864, to the close of the war. as shown by the pre- 
ceding tables, was 9,382 

Making the total credits of the State from April, 1861, to April, 

1865, the entire period of the war, as shown by the records 92,729 

Deducting from this aggregate the number of men commuting. . . . 1,982 
There is left a total of numbers actually furnished in men of. . . 90,747 

These figures do not include men enlisted in regiments of 
other States, and are believed to be substantially correct. 
There is a discrej)ancy, however, between them and the tables 
of the War Department, as will be seen by the subjoined let- 
ter from the Provost Marshal General: 

WAR DEPARTMENT. 

PuovosT Marshal General's Office, 
Washington, D. C, Sept. 2d, 1865. 
His Excellency H. 11. Crapo, Oovernor of Michigan, Lansing : 

Sir — I have the honor to inform you that the number of 
men furnished by the State of Michigan from April 17tli, 1861, 
to April 30th, 1865, is ninety thousand and forty-eight (90,- 
048), without reference to periods of service, which varied 
from three months to three years. 

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully your obedient 
servant, 

James B. Fry, 
Provost Marshal General. 

From returns made by the Provost Marshal General it 
appears that the aggregate quotas charged against the several 
States under all the calls made by the President from April 
15th, 1861, to April 15, 1865, amounted to 2,759,049, and 
that the aggregate number of men credited on the several 
calls and put into the service during the same period was 



AOnRESS OF GEN. .fOHN ROBERTi?0N. 



40: 



2,656,553, leaving a deficiency on all calls when the war closed 
of 102,496, which would have been obtained in full it" recruit- 
ing and drafting h;ul not been discontinued. This number 
does not embrace the "emergency men" put into the service 
at various times during the summer of 1863, amounting to up- 
ward of 120,0 00 men, who served pci'iods of two or three 
weeks. 

The following tables, furnished to Congress by the Secretary 
of War, in compliance with a resolution of the House of Rep- 
resentatives adopted in December, 1865, give the latest official 
information with respect to the number of volunteers called for 
by the President at various periods: 

NUMBER OF TROOPS FURNISHED UNDER DIF 
FERENT CALLS. 



DATE OF CALL. 



Call Of April 15, 1861, for 75,000 men < 

Call of May 'i, and .July 'JS and ~>5, ISOl, for :M),m) men 

Call (if July 2, 18tVJ. for 50i>.ii00 men 

Call of .Vugiist 4, ISt;-,', for 3(H). OHO men 

Proolamal on of .June 1."). lSt;.3, for Militia 

Call of October 15. lS(i;j, and February 1, 1864, for500,000 I 

men ) 

Call of .March, 18C4, for 200.000 men 

Militia Mustered into Service in Spring of 1H04 

Call of July 18, 1864, for 500,000 men < 

Call of December 19, 1864, for 300, (XH) men | 



Numbei' 
of Men. 



98,235 

2,715 

9,0,56 

30, 952 

657, 86;^ 

419,627 

86,860 

16,361 

374,807 

2K4,021 

S3, 612 

149,. 156 

231, 79H 

728 

151,105 

5,076 

48,0<;5 

312 



Terins of 
Enlistment. 



3 months. 
6 months. 

1 year. 

2 years. 

3 years. 
3 years. 

9 months. 
6 months. 

3 years. 

3 years. 

100 days. 

1 and 2 years 

3 years. 

4 years. 

1 year. 

2 years. 

3 years. 

4 years. 



32 



498 



MICHIGAN S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 



NUMBER OF TROOPS FURNISHED BY STATES. 



STATE. 



Maine 

New Hampshire 

Vermont 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 

New York 

New Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware 

Maryland 

West Virginia 

District of Columbia . 
Ohio. 



Indiana 

Illinois 

Michigan . . 
Wisconsin . 
Minnesota.. 
Iowa. 



Missouri i 108 

Kentucky 

Kansas ! 20 

Totals I 2,653, 062 



Aggregate 

Reduced to 

3 years' 

Standard. 




2,139,041 



* The final credit allowed Michigan by the Provost Marshal was 90,048. 



'riic following is taken from the same work, made up fi-om 
the Provost Marslial General's report: 

" The recorded uuniljer of deserters was 26S,o;30, although 
the Provost Marshal General considers that about one-fourth 
of these were subsetjuently a(;counted for. More than 76,000 
were ari-ested, but probably as many as 125,000 different enlist- 
ments failed to yield soldiers to the army, although they led to 
their entry upon the official record. 

"In general, the manufacturing States, as for instance, Mas- 
sachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New 
Jersey, rank high in the column of desertions; and this result 
is to be attributed to the fact that such States are dotted with 
towns and cities. 

" It appears beyond dispute that the crime of desertion is 
especially characteristic of troops from large cities and of the 
districts which they supply with recruits. The ratio per thou- 
sand of deserters to cretlits throughout the loyal States is 
62.51. 

"The resj)ectable and industrious part of tliis population 
did, indeed, produce a mass of faitiiful troops, but with these 
were mixed a vast number of adventurers unworthy of any 
country, who had no aft"e(;tion for the Republie, and only en- 
listed for money." 



ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 



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ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN KOBEETSON. 



501 



OFFICERS AND MEN WHO WP]KE UNDER THE FLAO OF 
THE IN ION 18(51-65. 



RKGIMENTS. 



Gen'l Officers, and on the Staff, and i 

in the retjular service of the U. S. l 

In Vol. Ortranizations of othei- States. 

1st Regiment Eng'rs and Meclianics. . 



Light .Vrtillery. 
Cavalry 



Infantry, three months. 
" three years 



reorganized 



l.st 

l8t 

2d 

3d 

4th 

5th 

tlth 

7th 

8th 

9th 

10th 

nth 

1st 

1st 

■M 

3d 

3d 

4th 

4th 

5th 

6th 

7th 

,sth 

!)th 

10th 

11th 

nth 

12th 

13th '• " 

14th " " 

15th " " 

lOtli Retrinient Infantry, and two _ 

C'o's Sharp.<;liooters, attached ' 

17th Regiment Infantry 

ISth •• " 



reorganized 



reorganized 



19th " " 

20th " •• 

21st " " 

22d " " 

23d " " 

24th " •• 

25th " •' 

26th " " 

27tli Regiment Infantry, and two t 
Independent Companies attached "I 

28th Regiment Infantry 

29th " ■• 

30th " ■' 

Ist " Sharpshooters 

1st '■ Colored Infantry 

Merrill Horse 

1st Regiment U. S. Sharpshooters . . . 
2d 

Co. D, fiBth Illinois Infantry 

Co. A, 23d •• 

Co. B, 37th •• 

Co. H,42d •' 

Co.B,44th " 






6 
33 
92 
45 
24 
31 
94 
95 
47 
23 
23 
18 
18 
3 
103 
95 
96 



115 
] 

141 
43 

123 

130 
11 
55 
45 



28 
40 
82 
48 

155 

89 
11 
50 
04 
40 
52 
38 

lis 

21 
61 



:i42 
367 
246 
260 
375 
327 

2:w 

266 
246 
288 
151 
240 
114 
3 

92 
112 

75 
1.56 

95 
141 
163 
470 
154 
195 
268 
209 
198 

81 
377 
314 
195 
264 

128 

152 
297 
142 
173 
291 
289 
225 
142 
129 
1.55 

199 

122 

64 

17 

150 

128 

67 

37 

18 

16 

10 

•1 

28 
29 



^ I 

£ I 



355 
410 
384 
3:M 
407 
371 
;i50 
379 
317 
318 
177 
269 
i:i8 
fi 
227 
306 
218 
157 
260 
148 
379 
53! 
324 
389 
286 
290 
279 
81 
428 
381 
243 

3;w 

831 

276 
310 
230 
274 
362 
368 
280 
298 
lti3 
253 



126 
69 
17 
2.57 
137 
75 
70 
80 
29 
18 

56 
43 



7 
356 
418 
404 
.3:18 
414 
.375 
358 
.386 
322 
321 
181 
271 
142 

9 
243 
321 
224 
158 
273 
148 
398 
.542 
338 
403 
2<)2 
299 
286 
81 
432 
390 
247 
337 

343 

283 
310 
2:57 
290 
368 
374 
287 
313 
](W 
259 



128 

71 

18 

263 

140 

75 

73 

31 

29 

IS 

5 

50 

43 



502 



MICHIGAN 8 SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 



OFFICERS AND MEN WHO WERE UNDER THE FLAG OF 
THE UNION 1861-G5— Continued. 





KUled in Action. 

Died of Wounds 13 
Rec'd in Action g 


RS. 


Men. 


Totals. 


REGIMENTS. 


h 

o 

■o 
» 

a 


3 
< 

1 


11 

■si 

a" 


s 

o 

s 


£ 

1 

o 

1 


1 


Is 

II 


Co. C, 70th New York Infantry 






15 


3 


7 




25 
14 

498 


25 


In other Companies serving in regi- I 
ments of other States and in the-v 






*14 


regular army so far as reported . . ( 

Taken from Roll of Honor U. S. f 

Quartermaster's Department as 

belonging to Michigan Regiments, ■{ 














*498 


but not found on regimental 
records I 

















RECAPITULATION. 

Officers killed 177 

Officers died of wounds 85 

Officers died of disease 96 — 

Men killed 2,643 

Men died of wounds 1,303 

Men died of disease 10,640 



358 



*14 
*498— 14,497 



14,855 



ADDRESS OF GKN. JOlJX KoliERTSOX. 503 

" Columbia e'er will know you 
From out her glittering towers, 
And kisses of love will throw you 
And send you wreaths of tlowers; 
And e'en in realms of glory 
Shall shine your starry claims; 
Angels have heard your story, 
And God knows all your names." 

While flags and banners are made tlie medium of expressing 
to troops gratitude for their patriotism, and tlie expectation of 
theii' gallant services, as well as their acknowledgment, costly 
monuments and columns are reared to commemorate their 
sacrifices. 

From tlu' earliest [)eriods in all civilized nations and com- 
munities, monuments have been acknowledged evidences of 
an eidightened, grateful and generous people, and are so 
considered at the present day. Some are reared as mementoes 
of great national events, or as recognitions of achievements or 
acknowledged worth of individuals ; others to honor the 
memories of patriots who have made sacrifices for their coun- 
try, while the most numerous are raised to mark the last rest- 
ing place of the departed, and to inscribe thereon their brief 
and latest history. 

iSome monuments, commenced with a national purpose, are 
in ruins ere completed. Others, undertaken by populous 
states or cities, are left unfinished, both speaking loudly of 
neglect, if not disgrace, and at least are evidences of a cooled 
ai'dor in the cause, or of a wanton forgetf ulness of the worth 
or valor which they were intended to perpetuate; while the 
humble stone, with the tender and loving inscription of the 
widowed mother to her departed child, is complete and stands 
intact, the consummation of a fixed and hallowed purpose. 

With a grateful appreciation of the services and sacrifices of 
her sons who gave up their lives, the dearest boon to man, 
and of those who risked them in the same glorious cause, 
Michigan, early in the war, determined to perpetuate their 
memories and heroic deeds, by the erection of a monument 
chiseled from the white marble or beautiful granite of 
America, elaborately and appropriatcl y finished with bronze 
or marl)le tigures. 

In June, 18(17, numerous designs were submitted to a com- 



504 Michigan's semi-centenkial. 

inittee, whose clioice was made of that presented by Randolph 
Rogers, the eminent American sculptor. In due time the 
monument was completed iu Detroit as originally designed, 
and at a cost of 870,185.91, raised by contributions through- 
out the State. It is constructed of gray granite, while its or- 
namental decoration is of gold bronze. Its dedication is: 
" Erected by the people of Michigan in honor of the martyrs 
who fell and the heroes who fought in defence of Liberty and 
Union." 

"The whole — it speaks in volumes of the past — 

Of war's dread tempest and the fiery blast; 

Of mail-clad labor, brave the sword to draw, 

To vindicate the right, maintain the law." 

The American sanitary measures were undoubtedly the most 
extensive and liberal ever undertaken by a people in any war, 
and accomplished much in ameliorating the sufferings incident 
to a great and prolonged war. Michigaii was not slow in 
entering into the beneficent effort. 

In the autumn of 1861 the " Michigan Soldiers Relief Asso- 
ciation of Washington," composed of warm-hearted Michigan 
men in that city, commenced its humane work and continued it 
until September, 1866. Its resources were assessments of the 
membership at the start. They were, however, in a short 
time relieved by contributions made by the people of the State 
amounting to $24,902.24 in the aggregate, which was expended 
in the care of Michigan soldiers in hospitals in Washington 
and in the field. 

The " Michigan Soldiers Aid Society " was formed in 
Detroit in November, 1861, being a branch of the "United 
States Sanitary Commission," and continued until June, 1866. 
Its resources were from various contributions in the State, 
amounting to $28,129.44, together with a large amount of goods 
and useful articles expended for the use of the sick in hospitals 
in the State and at the front, including $11,422.86 for 
" Soldiers' Home " in Detroit. 

The "Michigan Soldiers' Relief Association " was organized 
in Detroit in April, 1862, and continued while the war lasted. 
This association directed its efforts to collections throughout 
the State of large amounts of necessary supplies, including 
underclothing, sending them to the front for the use of the 



ADDKE6S OF GliN. JuHN ROBERTSON. 5()5 

soldiers sick or well; and in addition it expended $3,60U for 
useful purposes. 

In 18<J4 those associations were most opitortunely assisted by 
the ''Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society of Kalamazoo," by way of 
a "State Sanitary Fair" at Kalamazoo in September of that 
vear. It was managed with much good judgment and energy, 
ending in complete success, netting ><!»,(>18.7h over all expenses. 

" In tlie lieautiesof lilies, Christ was horn across the sea, 
With a glory in his hosom that transfia;urcs yon and me; 
As He died to make men holy, let ?/.v die to make men free." 

The *' Christian Commission " was a powerful auxiliary in 
sanitary operations, j)Ossessing immense strength and ciieriry- 
It was most successful as a sanitary organization, uniting 
therewith the religious instruction and admointion of good 
men to the living when opportunity offere<l, while kindly con- 
solation was afforded in their last moments to those who were 
passing away. 

The Michigan branch of the Commission commenced in 
June, 1803, but was practically in operation but one year. 
Its funds were received principally from church collections- 
Its receipts were $21,725.20, most of which forwarded to the 
central office in Philadelphia; stores estimated at $10,000 were 
sent direct to the army. 

The plan of the Commission was to minister both to the 
mental as well as the bodily wants of the army, sending the 
living preacher, the bible, and the religious newspapers of ail 
denominations, while all the time it ministered to the temporal 
wants of the soldier, and worked for the comfort of the sick, 
wounded and dying. It searched for the wounded amid the 
thickest of the battlefield, and never left him until he was 
discharged from hospital, or a jirayer consigns him to a 
soldier's grave. 

Michigan sent to the front fifty-six clergymen and laymen, 
<vho labore<l each six weeks without any compensation exce))t 
the consciousness of doing good. 

At the session of 18()T the Legislature appropriated twenty 
thousainl dollars to maintain for two vears a temporary 
"Soldiers' Home" at Harper hospital, in Detroit, for disabled 
destitute soldiers, managed by the State Military Hoard. At 
the session of 1869 another appropriation was made for its 



506 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

support for two years more. Since then appropriations have 
been continued and the Home is still in existence. 

The Potomac army, under command of Lieutenant General 
Grant, crossed the Rapidan May 5, 1864, and from that day 
onward to about the 10th day of June, there occurred a nearly 
continuous succession of battles, so frequent that it was a 
common remark of the soldiers returned from that campaign 
that it seemed to them like one continuous battle. 

Certain it was that the entire region, from the Rapidan to 
Cold Harbor, was a continuous battle ground. Three hundred 
thousand men in daily and nightly conflict for thirty-flve days, 
produced of necessity a host of wounded, who demanded from 
not only the Government, but the people, every possible 
assistance. 

Notwithstanding the medical department of the Government 
exercised all its accustomed foresight, and made judicious use 
of its immense resources with advanced preparations to meet 
coming emergencies, there were times during the war when 
great battles came thick and fast, when rebel bullets felled men 
like the grain in harvest, that it failed in supplying a sufliciency 
of surgeons in the field, and extreme sufl:ering threatened the 
sick and woumled. This deficiency, however, was readily and 
cheerfully made up by the voluntary service of the medical 
men of the laud. The surgeons of Michigan were not behind 
in the humane work, and without fee or proffer of reward, 
never failed, although at a great sacrifice, in promptly and 
substantially responding to the emergency, and thirty-three 
surgeons of the State, together with five medical students from 
Ann Arbor, volunteered their services and reported to the 
Surgeon General of the army, who assigned to duty at various 
points at the front, most of them remaining so long as their 
services were deemed necessary, without any compensation or 
hope of reward except that which comes from a sense of 
having served their country in a time of great need, and 
performed a Christian duty in alleviating much suffering of 
their fellow man. 

The most momentous period in the history of Michigan was 
the war of the rebellion, embracing the home work of the 
people; and although that may be looked upon as insignificant 
when compared with the extent and vahu; of the labor of her 



ADDKESS ()F GEN. JOHN KoBEKTSON. O^U 

troo[)S in ihe tiold, and the great sac-riHcc of lite made by them, 
yet it was one of great magnitude. The ukl proverb that 
"constant dropping wears the stone," did not seem to be 
applicable, for could the continuous drain on the people of 
Michigan for men and means liave worn out their patriotism, 
such a result would liave been surely accomplished. For, 
aside from the incessant labor of the people in raising men to 
till their quotas, to save their communities from the odious 
drafts which continually threatened them, involving much 
perplexing anxiety, there were many petty annoyances, great 
sacrifice of time, together with large expenditures of money by 
State, counties and townships, and also by individuals, which 
all combined rendered the burdens and cares of the people at 
times so heavy as to be almost unbearable. Still the aston- 
ishing statements made below, covering over fourteen and a 
half million of dollars, raised and applied by Michigan for war 
purposes, although couched in silent figures, speak most 
eloquently and earnestly of the great sacrifice and the 
unbounded patriotism of her people. 

In accordance with law the Quartermaster General of the 
the State expended in 1863 $134,250; 1864, 8867,959; 1865, 
$383,076; 1866, $438,500; 1867,111,700; 1868, $18,623; 1869, 
$28,850; 1870, $26,400, up to and including 81 st of July, amount- 
ing in the aggregate to $1,909,408. 

Since then there has been paid from July 31st, 1870, up to 
and including September, 18S0, $18,450, making $1,927,858 of 
a total of bounties. 

There was also disbursed .$60,000 as premiums for the pro- 
curation of recruits. 

Aside from these amounts this department expended for 
war purposes $815,000, making a total of $2,802,858 disbursed 
by the State. 

The following are the aggregate expenditures and liabilities 
of the various townships, cities and wards of the counties in 
the State for war purposes, made up from statements of the 
proper officers, rendered in 1866: 

Allegan, $188,898.49; Alpena, $9,781.98; Antrim, $4,638; 
Berrien, $257,416.97; Branch, $230,086.65; Barry, $180,641; 
Bay, $61,267; Calhoun, $354,432.32; Clinton, $135,936; Cass, 
$196,239.86; Chippewa, ; Cheboygan, $1,525; Delta, 



508 Michigan's semi-centennial. 

^1,200; Eaton, 1175,863.58; Emmet, $50; Genesee, $150, 
488.75; Gratiot, $23,527; Grand Traverse, $12,990.54; Hills 
dale, $282,449.21; Houghton, $39,152.71; Huron, $17,230 
Ionia, $182,888; Ingham, $203,985; Isabella, $5,775; Iosco 
$4,900; Jackson, $439,325.10; Kent, $167,550,50; Kalama/oo, 
$383,416.61; Keweenaw, $1,000; Livingston, $14-1,379.22; La 
peer, $129,674.89; Lenawee, $544, 557.75; Leelanavv, $4,845.52 
Midland, $12,598; Montcalm, $44,861.20; Muskegon, $43,604 
Macomb, $289,029.69;' Mecosta, $3,340; Monroe, $135,180.69 

Manistee, $15,476; Manitou, ; Mackinac, $6,727.50; Ma^ 

son, $807; Marquette and Schoolcraft, $3,000; Newaygo, $12, 
004; Ottawa, $148,523; Oakland, $586,556.98; Oceana, $14, 
692.93; St. Clair, $233,291.90; St. Joseph, $557,958; Saginaw 
$158,099.59; Shiawassee, $167,203; Sanilac, $95,794.29; Tus 
cola, $67,631.96; Van Buren, $1 15,637.90; Wayne, $660,554.88 
Washtenaw, $458,563.54. Total, $8,157,748.70. 

Amount expended by each county of the State from 1861 to 
1867 for the relief of soldiers' families, under the provisions 
of tlie Soldiers' Relief Law, approved May 10th, 1861: 

Alpena, $8.80; Allegan, $80,985.72; Antrim, $666.11 ; Bay, 
$21,991 54; Barry, $86,598.15; Berrien, $131,924.45; Branch, 
$69,121.20; Calhoun, $200,193. 66; Ca8S,$80,883. 46; Clinton,$67,- 

443.75; Cheboygan, $368.92; Chippewa, $1,032; Delta, ; 

Eaton, $62,103.69; Emmet, $1,948.40; Genesee,$89,087. 12; Grat- 
iot, $8,875; Grand Traverse, $10,636.81; Hillsdale, $90,155.96; 
Houghton, $8,419; Huron, $23,033.50; Ingham, $110,547.09; 
Isabella, $4,680.45; Ionia, $31,500; Iosco, $1,000; Jackson, 
$129,401.25; Kalamazoo, $119,084.79; Kent, $76,31 1 ; Kewee- 
naw, $3,620; Lapeer, $75,t»O0; Livingston, $34,500; Lenawee, 
$145,226.20; Leelanaw, $6,487.89; Macomb, $1 10,339.26; Me- 
costa, $9,280.09; Mackinaw, ; Midland, $6,550; Manitou, 

; Mason, $3,200; Manistee, $9,620; Muskegon, $20,000; 

Marquette, $7,989.16; Menominee, $3<»0; Monroe, $143,762; 
Montcalm, $40,000; Newaygo, $14,516.72; Ottawa, $56,616.08. 
Oceana, $18,368; Ontonagon, $4,747.02. Oakland, $127,993.38; 
Sanilac, $73,11 1.33; Shiawassee, $50,645; Saginaw, $81,000; St. 
Clair, $89,427.99; St. Joseph, $96,214; Tuscola, $51,987.22; 
Van Buren, $99,511.81; Washtenaw, $155,043.15, and Wayne, 
$547,200. Total, $3,591,248.12, while $14,569,852.82 was the 
total jMiblic expenditure of the State, without making any ac- 



ADDRESS OF OEN. .TOITN ROBERTSON. 509 

count of the large sum which the war must of necessit)'^ have 
cost private individuals in money and articles contributed for 
sanitary purposes and other contingencies. 

Tile amount of ><594,(3()U was paid by individuals into the 
Treasury of the LTnited States in accordance with law, by 
drafted citizens of the State as commutation. 

At the outbreak of the war all the uniforined companies 
I lien ill llic State voliint(>ered for service; of these two in 
Detroit reorganized for home duty, the Detroit Light Guard, 
Srott (Tiiard, while the Lyon Guai-d, also in Detroit, was i-aised 
and inustereil for that duty, and all served in tiie State during 
the war. These companies were held in readiness to quell any 
disturbances in the community, and rendered valuable service 
ill that respect and in guarding against raids by Southern rebel 
i-efugees from the l)orders of Cana<la. threatened from time to 
time to be made on Detroit and along the frontier line. They 
also aided iniich in sustaining a confidence of secuiity of life 
and property among the inhabitants, especiallv while the raids 
referred to were being threatened. 

The war had thrown a damper on homeservice, and but little 
]>rogress was made in organizing companies, but few seeking 
admission, so that from the commencement of the war up to 
ls73 only six com)ianies had been received into service. In 
that year an allowance of uniform was made bv the State, 
which gave some impetus to military affairs, and in \x74 they 
had increased to sixteen companies, sufiicient from which to 
organize the 1st Regiment, Colonel W. H. Withington, of 
Jackson, and the 2nd, Colonel I. C. Smith, of Grand Ra])ids. 

About this time the State commenced to look upon the mili- 
tary in a more favoiabic light, and in l^Tn authoritv was 
given by tin- Legislature to levy for its sup])ort in each vear a 
tax of ten cents per capita on the preceding vote for Governor, 
:ind during IST") eight companies more were accepted and mus- 
tered into service, wlien t he organization of the Tliiiil Regi- 
ment, Colonel O. F. Lochhead, of Flint, was accomplishei]. 

In 1!^7'.1 the tax was made three and one-half cents jn-r 
capita oil the last preceding census. These ;illo\vances gave a 
new life to the military of the .'^tate, and a iccM<_fiiition and i-n- 
couragement so long denied. 

On .fulv l">th of that vear, a brigade was formed of the 



olO Michigan's SE>n-cENTENNiAL. 

three regiments witli Brigadier-General W. H. Withington 
as Commander. Up to this time the pressure for the admission 
of companies had been strong and urgent, and sufficient had 
been accepted to warrant the organization of a battalion of 
four companies at Detroit in 1882, in command of Lieut. Col- 
onel Eugene Robinson. In the meantime a battalion of two 
companies, taken from the Third Regiment, had been made up 
at Marquette to be commanded by the ranking Captain; it 
was, however, soon broken up and the companies again merged 
in the Third Regiment. In 188-5 six additional companies 
were admitted and assigned to the First Battalion, which was 
then designated as the Fourth Regiment, with Colonel Robin- 
son commanding. 

Thus it will be seen that the State troops now consist of four 
regiments of infantry formed into a brigade. They are well 
officered, armed and equipped, and ready for any service. A 
comparison of their present condition with that of a few years 
ago exhibits a degree of rapid and substantial improvement in 
all that pertains to their Organization, discipline and drill; 
while it is most satisfactory to notice that, at all times, when 
their services have been required, they have been rendered in 
such a manner as to receive the approval of the civil authori- 
ties and the people of the communities where they have been 
on duty; and that they are now recognized as a permanent part 
of the State government, creditable, effective and reliable, re- 
ceiving the countenance and support of the people of the 
State. 



UK KAKLV LKGISLATIOX OF MICHIGAN. 

INSERTED BY KIND PEKMl.SSION OF THE AUTUOll, 

Hon. ALPHEUS FELCPI. 



It w;is my fortune to be a member of tlie first and second 
Legislatures of the State of Michigan. The first Constitution 
of the State was adopted by a vote of the people on the first 
Monday of October, 1835. Under its provisions the Governor 
and members of the first Legislature were elected the same 
day, and the first session of the Legislature was hc^ld on the 
second day of November following. The meeting took place 
at Detroit, in the building erected by the LTnited States for 
the Territorial Council, and which, for twelve years afterwards, 
served the State for its legislative halls. 

Here the first Legislature was organized and the official oath 
administered to its members. Hero in joint assembly of the 
two houses the votes for Governor and Lieutenant Governor 
were canvassed, and they took the official oath prescribed by 
the Constitution. Ili're tlu' State organization was perfected. 
Here a new Commonwealth had its birth and waited only the 
action of Congress to take its place in the galaxy of States 
which, together, constitute the great American Nationality. 
I scarcely need to say tliat the occasion was one of great 
interest to the people of JNIichigan. The initiatory government 
of a territorial organization was about to cease. The days of 
pupilage were maturing into tlic freedom nl' manhood, and 
visions of the glorious future of the new State were bright 
before every eye. A Constitution prepared by delegates of 
their own choosing and adopted by their own free votes was 
henceforth to be their fundamental law, and under it legisla- 
tive and executive officers of their own selection were to be 
the guardians of their common interests. 

More than fifty years have passed since the proud day to 
which I refer, a?id you will not wonder that one who partici- 
pateil in its events, and whose Ixisom glowed with the ardoi- 



512 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 

then kindleil in every breast, looks back with a proud and 
beating heart to this birthday of our Commonwealth. Nor is 
it in the primal days of our State's history, or in the time of 
our first executive Legislature and judicial othces alone that 
we may justly glory. Every day of the fifty years that marks 
the history of our Republic I have watched carefully the 
events which have occurred in its progress — its discourage- 
ments, its changes and marvelous growth — and I cannot but 
feel in my heart that within this half century no State in the 
Union, and certainly no |)olitical organization on earth, outside 
the Union, has made truer or greater progress, or has more 
reason to be proud of the record made by the various depart- 
ments of its government. 

There are some peculiarities connected with the early legis- 
lation which we must not fail to notice. By the provisions of 
the Constitution all laws then in existence in the Territory of 
Michigan, not repugnant to the Constitution, were to remain 
in force until they should expire by their own limitation, or be 
repealed by the State Legislature, and all civil and military 
officers holding in the Territory under authority of the United 
States were to continue so to act until superseded under the 
authority of the State. Thus the new State started on its 
course as an inde])en(lent Republic, with laws already matured 
and in force, and with officers already sworn to carry them into 
effect. The machinery might at the first view have seemed 
sufficient for the new organization, and further acts of legisla- 
tion unnecessary. But this was not so. The territorial laws 
were crude and imperfect. They were enacted for the small 
border settlements in a wilderness country, where the footstep 
of the immigrant had just begun to press the virgin soil and 
the forest to yield to the axe and the plow of the settler. But 
a change had commenced and was in rapid progress. Immi- 
gration was pouring in with a tide irresistible and, day by 
day, growing stronger and stronger. The new inhabitants 
brought with them the arts of domestic life and the refinements 
of civilized and polished society; and, above all, that spirit of 
energy and enterprise which was able to build up a new State 
and crown it with the glory of a free Republic. Few of the 
old laws originated in an assembly chosen by the people of the 
Territory, and not one of the officers received his authority by 



THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 513 

popular election. The popular sentiment which induced the 
niakint; of the Constitution and the organization of the State 
Government under it, demanded larger and broader legislation 
and institutions of a more popular character. The duty of 
supplying these, and of enacting laws in accordance with this 
sentiment, and in aid of the progress and consolidation of the 
State on the basis of permanent prosperity, was tlirown largely 
on the first Legislature and to its immediate successors. 

The first Legislature met on the second day of Xovember, 
1835, under pe(!uliar circumstances. The Legislature, if it was 
anything, was a part of an organized government — of a gov- 
ernment possessing all the powers of an existing organized 
State, yet it was within the limits and jurisdiction of the 
United States. But tlie Government of the United States re- 
cognized no such State as a member of the Federal Union. 
True tlie State Constitution hail been ))resented to Congress 
and an apj)eal made for admission into the Union, but the 
unfortunate collision with the State of Ohio relative to the 
southern boundary of Michigan calised delay in the desired rec- 
ognition. Congress, however, by an act of June loth, 1836, ap- 
proved the State Constitution, and recognized the right of 
the State to admission, yet imposed a condition of formal as- 
sent to the change of the boundary line as demanded by the 
State of Ohio, and refuse*! admission until such assent was 
given. This assent was subse<piently given in an informal but 
acceptable manner, and on the 25th of January, 1837, the ad- 
mission of the State into the Union "on an equal footing with 
the original States " was formally declared by an act of Con- 
gress. Thus from Xovember 2, 1835, when the Legislature 
was organized under the Constitution in Detroit, until the final 
act of admission by Congress on the 26th of January, 183 7, a 
period of one year and about three months, the condition of 
the State was most anomalous. Two jurisdictions existed in 
apparent conflict. The territorial jurisdiction was not for- 
mally withdrawn by the LTnited States. The Territory con- 
tinueil to be represented in the House of Representatives by 
her delegate: John S. Horner was nominally Acting Governor 
of the Territory. In tiie mcaniime the State organization 
was perfected and the Government {)Ut into completeoperation. 
Li November, Is3.3, two United States Senators were elected 
33 



514 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 

by the Legislature, and in the month previous a Representative 
in Congress had been chosen by the people. The Judicial De- 
partment of the State was put into full operation, and in 1836, 
county, State and township officers wore elected and assumed 
the duties of their respective offices. Thus the State was fully 
organized and her officers administering the State Govern- 
ment, while the territorial organization under the general 
Goveriinient had not been withdrawn, nor any assent to the 
antagonist State Government given by Congress. The two 
jurisdictions were incompatible with each other, and it is sur- 
prising that during a period of more than a year while they 
continued, no important act of collision or conflict occurred. 
Great good sense and forbearance on all sides,, and especially 
on the part of the President of the United States, alone, could 
have avoided it. The provision of the Constitution which 
continued in force the territorial laws and fetained the terri- 
torial officers in authority until a change should be made under 
the authority of the State did much to avoid collision and 
trouble. The old territorial officers continued to pei'form 
their offices as before, and neither they nor others cared to de- 
termine whether their authority came from the State or the 
General Government. The old territorial laws which by the 
Constitution were continued in force, were still the laws of the 
land, and no man cared to discuss the question whether they 
derived their validity from the territorial or State organiza- 
tion. Still the condition was most remarkable — a State within 
the territorial jurisdiction of the General Government acting 
with perfect independence — a full-fledged State within the 
limits of the Union, yet not a member of the Union, nor i-ec- 
ognized by it — a Government under a State Constitution 
within a Government oi'ganized under the authority of the 
United Stales. It is easy to see in such a state of affairs, how 
many questions might liave arisen which the most astute casu- 
ist would have found it difficult to solve, and ovei- which the 
keenest civilian and the wisest statesman might have pondered 
in doubt. Luckily there was no disposition anywhere to raise 
mooted questions, or to encourage controversy or to bring on 
collisions. The Hrst Legislature had no hesitancy in putting 
into operation the entire machinery of the Constitution or in 
enacting laws to promote the prosperity and growth of a per- 



THK KAKLV LKcilSLATIoN <>F MICHIGAN. 515 

manent re|ml»lic. It must Itc (■(nifcssed, however, that the 
history ol' the birth aii«l caily <lays of tlie State exliibits the 
most bolil and chivalrous action on the part of our early states- 
men, and tlie most fearless and determined etierj^y in the men 
who laid the framework of our shi)» of state and sent it on its 
prosperous voyage. 

The first session of the Legislature attempted little more 
than to inaugurate the executive branch of the government 
and to elect two United States Senators. But at the adjourned 
session in FeV)ruary, 1886, the work of legislation was entered 
upon in good earnest. Aware of the delicate condition of 
affairs, the evident conflict of jurisdictions and the possibility 
that it might lead to serious collision between the authorities 
of the United States and those of the State, they })roceeded 
carefully to consider the subject through a committee, and 
resolved " to proceed at the present session to pass all laws 
required by the ititerests of the people, and to secure to them the 
rights guaranteed by the Ordinance and the Constitution of 
their own adoption." A respectable minority in the Senate 
filed their protest against such proceeding on the ground that 
the President had officially communicated to the executive- 
elect of the State liis full determination to maintain the terri- 
torial authorities and (Tovernment in all its parts, and that 
every act passed by the Legislature must inevitably produce a 
collision with the authorities of the general government. But 
the Senate resolved to make no delay in the work, and the 
House tacitly acquiescing, the work of general legislation was 
entered upon in good earnest. During this session many new 
counties and towTiships were organized, and villages incorpor- 
ated. Authority was given for building and improving 
certain rivers and for laying out State roads. Seven banks and 
twelve railroad companies were incorporated. Provision was 
also made for the election of all elective officers provided for 
by the Constitution or the laws, and their duties and compen- 
sation were prescribed. The effect of these and other enact- 
ments was speedily to retire all officers who held under terri- 
torial authority and to supersede all territorial laws and to put 
the new State organization into full and complete operation. 

But the laws of the early Legislatures did more than this. 
There is abundant evidence in them that the members took no 



516 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 

narrow or unworthy view of the work they were chosen to 
perform. He who is called to participate in the foundation of 
a new Republic, is called to a most noble and dignified work. 
He labors not for the present alone, but for ages and ages yet 
to come. The work of our early Legislatures w^as in its 
immediate application for a small population, and for a region 
of country almost a wilderness, with few industrial pursuits, 
small available resources and limited business operations. But 
they saw beyond all this. A wider vision opened before them. 
If it is the immortality of man that gives dignity to manhood, 
so it is the perpetuity of statehood that gives dignity and 
importance to a State. 

They laid the foundation stones with the vision of the future 
bright before them, and in the hope and undoubting belief 
that they built for all time, and that generations yet to come 
would enjoy rich fruit from their labors. 

How wise, both for the present and the future, this early 
legislation was, is clearly exhibited by reference to some of 
the statutes. 

Here was laid the foundation of that grand system of 
education which has so nobly developed itself within the last 
fifty years. The Constitution of 1835 provides for the 
appointment of a Superintendent of Public Instruction, whose 
duties should be prescribed by law, and made it the duty of 
the Legislature to encourage " the promotion of intellectual, 
scientifical and agricultural improvement." It required the 
establishment of common schools and libraries. Into the hands 
of the Legislature was committed by Congress the charge of 
the section of laud in every township in the State for the use 
of schools, and the seventy-two sections of land granted for the 
use and support of a University. With these funds devoted 
to educational purposes, of little present, but of great pros- 
pective value, the foundation of the present system of educa- 
tion was laid. The report of John D. Pierce, Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, made to the Legislature at its session in 
January, 1837, is an admirable and most exhaustive discussion 
of the great subject of popular education, with clear and 
practical views for carrying into operation the provisions of 
the Constitution, and suggestions as to the necessary legisla- 
tion on the subject. The Legislature caught the spirit, and 



THK K\KI,\' r,K(;ISr>ATr()N' of MK'inO.VN. 517 

embraced tlu' hroad views of tlic report, and its reeoimiieiida- 
tions were adopted. It gave the new State at once and from 
the first an educational system, tlien, if not now, far in advance 
of that of any of the ohler States. I know of no otlier State 
where tlie education of all its population was, at that time, 
treated as a great sultjectof State importance, the details of its 
various branches defined, and an oflicer under tlie commission 
of the RepuV)lic- charged with its general care and oversight, 
and required to report periodically to the legislative department 
of the Government. 

In other States education was committed largely, if not 
entirely, to local and district schools, private schools, acade- 
mies and colleges; but these were detached organizations, 
doing certainly much true and faithful work, but greatly 
wanting in the coherence necessary to form an effective and 
perfect system, with that sui)erintendence over all which so 
broad a subject demands. The system here adopted contem- 
plates nothing more or less than the education of all. Begin- 
ning with the lowest grade, it gradually rises until it termi- 
nates at the highest in the University. The success of this 
system has drawn to it the marked attention of educators and 
Statesmen elsewhere, and has elicited universal commendation. 
The University now standing at the head of the system, now 
less than half a century in operation, already takes its place 
beside the old institutions which have enjoyed the growth of 
centuries, and shares with them the honors of literary 
eminence, while it was among the foremost to enlarge and 
liberalize the cunicidum, and to welcome within its halls 
science and knowledge of the arts and industries of practical 
life. 

The judicial svstcni which was ailoptcd l)y the Constitution 
and by the early Legislatures was eminently fitted to tiie cir- 
cumstances of the times and proved highly successful in pro- 
motion of the |)ulilic interest. The population of the State 
was at that time small and l>usiness transactions neither exten- 
sive nor complicated. Three Judges ajjpointed by the Gover- 
nor, by and witii the advice and consent of the Senate, consti- 
tuted the Supreme Court, under the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion; but under the same authority the Legislature added a 
Court of Chancerv. Circuit Courts were held in each of the 



518 THE KARI.Y LEGISLATION oF MICHIGAN. 

counties by one of tlie Judges of tlie Supreme Court, assisted 
by two associate Justices elected by the people. Thus justice 
was brought to the door of all litigants, and it w-as ably and 
impartially administered. But this organization, admirable as 
it was for the time being, was insufficient to sup2)ly the needs 
of a largely increased population and the necessarily large and 
complicated business of later times. Nothing perhaps can ex- 
hibit in a stronger light the marvelous growth of the State and 
the increase of its business interests, than the fact that the 
Supreme Judges, although relieved from all Circuit Court 
duties and increased in numbers, are continually burdened 
with heavy dockets, while the Circuit Court business then re- 
quired to be performed by the three Supreme Judges is now^ 
committed to twenty-eight Circuit Judges. 

Another of the measures of importance in early legislation 
was the adoption of a system of internal improvements. In 
1837, two bills having this object in view, were simultaneously 
before the Legislature, and respectively became laws on the 
20th and 21st of March in that year. The first of tiiese pro- 
vided for the construction of three railroads across the State, 
to be known as the Central, the Southern and the Northern 
railroads, although for the last a canal might be substituted 
in whole or in part. The other act authorized a loan of the 
credit of the State, of a sum not exceeding five millions of 
dollars for the purpose of meeting the expenses. This loan 
was subsequently obtained and the construction of the works 
commenced and prosecuted under the charge of commissioners 
appointed for the purpose. The State held the roads until the 
spring of 1846, when they were sold and two and a half mil- 
lions of dollars paid into the treasury for them. 

The legislation and the project involved in it have been the 
subject of much criticism, and certainly it was a most expen- 
sive undertaking for a new State with a small population and 
few' available resources, and for some years the outstanding 
warrants of the State, issued for labor and materials in con- 
structing the wox'ks, were unpaid and afloat. But we must 
consider the circumstances of the times before we censure. 
The complete adaptability of the wondrous power of steam to 
locomotion and draught by railroads was a discovery compara- 
tively new. Not more than twelve hundred miles of railroads 



thp: eakf.v i.Ki.isr.ATio-v »>k miumigax. 519 

h.ul \)L'cu coiislnuleil ;il tliat time in the llniteil States, ami 
these were ehiefly in the vicinity of the Athmtic coast, no one 
of them approaching nearer to Michigan than the eastern por- 
tion of tlie State of New York. liut the public mind was 
aroused on the subject of the newly discovered power, and its 
applicability and the incalculable benetits to be derived from 
them. Legislatures were everywhere besieged for charters, and 
our own State, as we have seen, was no exception. Capitalists 
and moneyed men were ready to invest their means, and asked 
only the boon of chartered privileges and i)owers. The busi- 
ness of ruined manufacturers and dilapidated cities was to be 
revived, and the prairie and forest lands of the Western States, 
it was fondly dreamed, needed oidy railroads to bring trade, 
population, wealth and the retinemtHits of civilization. It was 
a craze almost universal, and yet at the bottom of it all lay 
much truth and sound practical reasoning. 

It was under these circumstances that the proposition for the 
railroad project and the live million loan was made. The bill, 
as reported by the Committee in the House, provided for only 
one road, that running from Detroit west through the second 
tier of counties from the southern border of the State. I re- 
member very distinctly when the proposition was made to 
amend the bill by substitutitig the three roads in place of one. 
It created great alarm among the special friends of the bill. 
They looked upon it as indicating a design to defeat the en- 
tire project, and they well knew that a combination of the 
votes nortli and south of the line would seal its fate. But in 
this they were mistaken. The proposition was ma'le in all 
sincerity. The pro[)osed loan was large and they reasoned that 
as near as possible the benefit of it sln)uld be given to all who, 
as members of the State, were to bear the burden of paying it. 

The two tiers of counties lying on the north and south of the 
counties through which it was proposed to construct the road, 
a fertile region already filling up with immigrant-s and develop- 
ing rich resources, had, in their judgment, equal claims with 
the others to participate in the beni^Hts of the public works. 
The rich and now important portion of the State north of the 
counties above referred to was then, with rare exceptions, an 
unbroken forest and little known. The jiroject of the railroads 
;ui<l the loan was accepted w itii approbation 1)\ the public, and 



520 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 

indeed I knew of but very few in the Legislature or out of it 
who doubted the propriety or the prudence of the measure. 

And now after the lapse of fifty years, we may well ask the 
question whether it turned out well or ill for the State ? Cer- 
tain it is, that the making of the roads gave a marvelous im- 
pulse to immigration and to business enterprises of every kind, 
and placed Michigan at the head of the list of western States 
in energy and successful prosperity and in the attractive char- 
acter of its institutions and population. And when we con- 
sider what an element of prosperity railroads have become, 
and how largely they have aided in developing the country, 
how intimately they are connected with all important business 
transactions, how efficient and successful a part they have 
acted and are still acting in the growth and prosperity of our 
State, he must be a bold man who should assert that the money 
was thrown away or the expenditure without adequate return. 
Besides, we must remember that the construction of the State 
roads was but the beginning of a broader system which, with- 
out aid from the public treasury, has since extended itself over 
the entire State with some seventy district roads and their 
branches and some five or six thousand miles of track, covering 
the entire surface as with a network of iron and constituting 
an element of prosperity exhibited in almost every locality 
without which our present high position must be lost. 

I must refer to another act of early legislation which opened 
the way for development of one of the resources of our State, 
now the subject of one of the great industries of our people 
and a source of much wealth. By a statute passed Februarj^ 
23d, 1837, a geological survey of the State was provided for 
and the Governor authorized, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, to appoint a State geologist. At this 
time little or nothing was known of the geological character 
of the State. The lower peninsula was understood to be 
founded on a l)ed of limestone, with little or no variety in its 
characteristics, and no value in its deposits; and of the upper 
peninsula nothing was known and nothing expected from it. 
The appointment of Dr. Douglas Houghton to the position of 
State geologist was a most forlunate one. A man of high 
scientific attainments, a true admirer of nature, whether in the 
animal, vegetable or mineral kingdom, an astute explorer of 



THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 521 

their secrets, an iiidcfiitigable toiler in his investigations, he 
was just tlie man foi- tlie duties required. For about ten 
years he (h-voted himself assiduously to his task, and died in 
the midst ol" his labors and at the post of duty. The result of 
this legislation has been highly important to the pecuniary 
interests of the State. The upper peninsula, previously 
regarded as worthless, was found to contain rich deposits of 
mineral wealth, and the business of mining has become of 
immense importance. The iron mines of Lake Superior have 
given an annual yield sometimes as high as fourteen millions 
of dollars, and the copper mines, confessedly the richest in the 
world, have given a yield of more than eight millions of dollars 
in a single year. In the lower peninsula the development of 
saline waters coursing through the earth, at first indicated only 
by the track of wild deer to the few salt springs, has, through 
the agency of the State geologist, ripened into a business 
employing many laborers and raucii capital, and returning 
generous profits. In the production of this industry, Michigan 
is first in the list of States, with an annual yield of not less 
than three millions of dollars. The progress of discoveries 
since the days of our own first State geologist has enlarged his 
work, and made further valuable develoj)ments. We have 
now not merely the salt springs inviting the wild deer, nor the 
brine percolating through the earth and brought from great 
depths, by artificial means, for the manufacturers' use, but 
some portions of the country are found to rest on beds of rock 
salt, deposited in the days of uncertain antiquity, when the 
briny waters of the ocean flowed over the basins of the great 
lakes and covered our two peninsulas. 

Another act of early legislation may be cited as exhibiting 
the peculiar characteristics of the times and the uncertainty of 
the results of well-intended enactments. I refer to the general 
banking law passed in March, 1837. It had its origin in the 
general derangement of all business affairs, the failure of some 
of the strongest mercantile firms, and the dark cloud of depres- 
sion and gloom which hung over the community and seemed 
to shut out every ray of light or hope for the future. The cry 
of hard times was loud, and came from every quarter, and 
many sincerely believedj that the remedy would be found in 
the multiplication of banks and flooding the country with 



522 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 

bank bills. Under the pressure of discouragement and panic 
wise men do not always act wisely. The general banking law 
was sup])osed by its friends to afford a remedy for all these 
evils, and this belief was almost universal. Indeed, no proposed 
measure in the Legislature was ever more jiopular, and in that 
body it had almost a unanimous vote. The opponents of the 
bill, of whom I was one, never exceeded three in number in the 
house, and the record shows that no more than two of them 
ever voted together in any stage of the progress of the bill to 
its final passage. A feeble minority was this, but the sequel 
showed that their apprehensions of disaster in the future were 
not groundless. The business of the country continued to 
become more and more deranged; banks were everywhere 
failing or suspended, and the panic seemed universal. Three 
months after the passage of this law Governor Mason convoked 
the Legislature in extra session, and gave in his message a 
graphic account of the deplorable condition of business and 
pecuniary affairs, for the consideration of which he had called 
them together. 

In the meantime banks without number had been organized 
under the law throughout the State — in all the villages and in 
out-of-the-way places, chosen for their remoteness from the 
intrusive bill holders. With a nominal capital of millions, they 
had little to show in their vaults; with discounted paper to a 
large amount they often had only the worthless promises of 
insolvents; with reported specie amounting to many thousands 
they frequently had only a few dollars, or, perhaps, coppers, 
or boxes partly filled with worthless rubbish, or a fraudulent 
certificate from some institution equally insolvent as them- 
selves, falsely asserting the deposit of coin held subject to 
their order. The bank commissioners became familiar with 
certain peripatetic coin traveling from bank to bank, and 
borrowed at a specified price per day, designed to be returned 
after an examination had been had, but speedily detected by 
the bank commissioner. Meantime the country was flooded 
with bank bills — some beautiful pictures in the highest art of 
the most skillful note engraver — some the blurred daub of the 
coarsest wood-cut; but all for a time passed into the currency 
and was paid out and received in the business transactions of 
the country. But the bubble soon burst. It was soon learned 



THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 523 

that paper jjromises, from whatever source emanating, in what- 
ever form issued, and by whatever signatures authenticated, 
can never constitute a safe currency, unh'ss behind it lays the 
means for its ready redemption and tlie Jinancial si<ill and 
sterling integrity wliicli alone can maintain its credit. The 
currency rapidly depreciated and soon became worthless. 
The legislation which caused its production was ill-advised and 
unwise, the times were unpropitious, and the loss to the com- 
munity large; but luckily it fell upon a young and vigorous 
people, and a few years of prudent economy and vigorous toil 
repaired the injury and restored their former prosperity. 

I have thus referred to the early legislation of Michigan as 
laying the foundation of the subsequent wonderful growth and 
advancement of our State. At the time of the adoption of the 
Constitution of 1835, the population of the State did not much 
exceed one hundred thousand, now it numbers little less than 
two millions. Detroit was then its only city: now between 
forty and fifty incorporated cities exist. The sixteen counties 
of 1835 have increased to forty-six. A single member then 
represented the State in Congress; now eleven share the burden 
between them. Thirty of the present counties were then a 
wilderness without inhabitants; now' the forests have largely 
given place to cultivated fields and the habitations of intelli- 
gent families. No large manufacturing establishments then 
existed: now they are numbered by hundreds. No railroad 
tracks then ))ressed the soil; now there are five thousand one 
hundred and fourteen miles reaching every ))ortion of the 
State, '['hen no mines had been discovered and the tool of the 
miner was unknown; now the mines are counted by hundreds, 
and the yield of copper and iron is abundant and richly re- 
wards the cajMtalist and the laborer. All this, and much more, 
is the growth of fifty years which have passed over us since 
the sessions of the first Legislature. 

As I refer to the acts of the early Legislatures, memory 
brings to my niiu-l the miii themselves who were the actors in 
the scene. Tiiey were in the full vigor of manhood, robust, 
active and energetic men; patriotic and zealous to do their 
State good service; men of great good sense and much prac- 
tical knowledge, they always looked to the matter rather 
than to the form, and scrui)ulously followed their own convic- 



524 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 

tions of right. In tlie legislative sessions every day was one 
of business. Speech-making was at a discount. The mem- 
bers were generally thinkers and actors, but not talkers. 
Thought, deliberation and judgment constituted their qualifi- 
cations for legislative duties, and they had neither time nor 
taste for harangue or speech-making. So small a part did the 
latter play in the proceedings that I believe not a speech can 
be found reported in the newspapers of the day. Arguments 
were not wanting when occasion required, but they were 
always pointed and couched in the briefest terras. 

The work of these earliest Legislatures was highly meri- 
torious and will never cease to receive due acknowledgment. 
They laid well the foundation stones of the great State. But the 
labor and the praise are not due to them alone. You, gentle- 
men, their successors in the several Legislatures since their 
day, are sharers in the good work. No legislation, however 
wise, can remain like a marble statue, fixed and unalterable. 
Wise as were the early statutes, and fitted as they were to the 
condition of things at the time of their enactment, a change 
of circumstances, and sometimes an experience of their un- 
favorable operation have required a change, and this has gen- 
erally been effected with care and prudence. In the rapid 
progress of improvements, in the great increase of population, 
in the ever progressive enlargement of business, in the busy 
activity in community of both the honest and the dishonest, 
the work of the Legislature is never ended. There are always 
rights to be protected, evils to be guarded against and great 
public interests to be promoted; and, altiiough it is a wise rule 
which enjoins that legislation should be as little as possible, 
these always demand the care of the legislative branch of the 
Government and will continue to do so. 

The first fifty years of our State have passed. Its history is 
written in letters of gold and cannot be blotted out. It is not 
for us who have seen all from the beginning, to remain until the 
great future of the republic shall be disclosed; but we can read 
the bright signs of promise that rest upon it, and join in the 
song of thanksgiving. 



(,IX 



